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Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Kochi Ridge-Onaga I

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 9 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.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveArmourGuns01 km2 kmN

One of the 28 engagements of the Battle of Okinawa recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 9 in date order). USA (US 7th Inf Div(+), 14,594 men under Mg Arnold) attacked Japan (Jap 22nd Inf Rgt, 5,000 men under Lcol Yoshida) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a double envelopment against fortified defense, and that Japan held. Losses: USA 269 (2%), Japan 1,324 (26%).

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 wingInfantry2,826
USA centreInfantry3,768
USA right wingInfantry2,826
USA reserveInfantry2,355
USA artillery (203 guns)Artillery2,189
USA armour (126 tanks)Armour630
Mg ArnoldCommander—
In this plan14,594

Japan

Lcol Yoshida

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry1,056
Japan centreInfantry1,408
Japan right wingInfantry1,056
Japan reserveInfantry880
Japan artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Lcol YoshidaCommander—
In this plan5,000

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan14,5945,000
Losses, this plan2691,324

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 525, “Kochi Ridge-Onaga I”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker14,5942690203Double envelopment; Repulse; Stalemate
Japandefender5,0001,324040Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages air superiority +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.