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Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Kochi Ridge-Onaga II

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 11 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 11 in date order). USA (US 7th Inf Div(+), 15,986 men under Mg Arnold) attacked Japan (Jap 22nd Inf Rgt, 4,500 men under Lcol Yoshida) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a single envelopment, left flank against fortified defense, and that Japan held. Losses: USA 182 (1%), Japan 814 (18%).

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 wingInfantry3,114
USA centreInfantry4,151
USA right wingInfantry3,114
USA reserveInfantry2,595
USA artillery (226 guns)Artillery2,398
USA armour (123 tanks)Armour615
Mg ArnoldCommander—
In this plan15,987

Japan

Lcol Yoshida

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry936
Japan centreInfantry1,248
Japan right wingInfantry936
Japan reserveInfantry780
Japan artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Lcol YoshidaCommander—
In this plan4,500

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan15,9864,500
Losses, this plan182814

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 526, “Kochi Ridge-Onaga Ii”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker15,9861820226Single envelopment; Left flank; Repulse; Stalemate
Japandefender4,500814040Defensive 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.