Easter at Okinawa

The sun began to  dawn that quiet Easter April 1,  1945. As  usual we had reported to our stations a few minutes earlier.  Suddenly the peace  was shattered as a cloud of Japanese planes filled the air with bombs, torpedoes and shells.   The sea was filled with shattered planes and sailors.  The ship that    headed our column was hit as was the LST to our port.

We avoided being hit, leaving us to pick up 725 survivors from the APA  Hinsdale 120 and   two LSTs.          
A more complete account is given on the blog of April 1, 2015.

Today is the anniversary of the battle for Okinawa, the largest and last battle of World War II in the Pacific. As longer as I am able I will continue to write about that Easter Sunday, 1945.  Our ship, the USS Pickens, escaped being hit by a kamikaze plane but the ships ahead of us and to our port side were not not as fortunate.  Here is how I remember that day as described on my blog in 2012:

The  Pickens was second in line behind the USS Hinsdale, APA 120, in column of attack transports carrying the Second Marine Division.  Around 5;;50 a.m. a Japanese plane hit the Hinsdale around the water line, exploding several bombs and blowing holes. Another plane headed for us but did not clear the mast of an LST, fell to the deck and exploded.  We put boats in the water and picked up 735  survivors from LST's-884 and 724 and the Hinsdale.

The Battle of Okinawa has been called the largest sea-land-air battle in history.   . Casualties were very high, 72 thousand for the Allies, over 100 thousand for the Japanese, and tens of thousands civilians. Suicide planes took a heavy toll of our ships and sailors and influenced President Truman to drop the atom bomb and avoid invading the homeland.