Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Advance from the Beachhead

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 1 of 28The event in the chronicleWikipedia
A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Flat, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmourCentreLeft wingRight wingReserve0500 m1 kmN

One of the 28 engagements of the Battle of Okinawa recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 1 in date order). USA (US 7th Inf Div(+), 22,888 men under Mg Arnold) attacked Japan (Jap 1st Spec Estab Rgt, 1,400 men under Lcol Aoyanagi) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack against delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 158 (1%), Japan 628 (45%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

USA

Mg Arnold

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry4,990
USA centreInfantry6,654
USA right wingInfantry4,990
USA reserveInfantry4,159
USA artillery (95 guns)Artillery1,425
USA armour (134 tanks)Armour670
Mg ArnoldCommander—
In this plan22,888

Japan

Lcol Aoyanagi

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry336
Japan centreInfantry448
Japan right wingInfantry336
Japan reserveInfantry280
Lcol AoyanagiCommander—
In this plan1,400

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan22,8881,400
Losses, this plan158628

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 521, “Advance From The Beachhead”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
48 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Delaying action
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 1.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker22,888158095Frontal attack; Penetration
Japandefender1,40062800Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · morale +1 · initiative +1 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.