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Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Kochi Ridge-Onaga III

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 12 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 12 in date order). USA (US 7th Inf Div(+), 15,764 men under Mg Arnold) attacked Japan (Jap 22nd Inf Rgt(+), 4,050 men under Lcol Yoshida) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a double envelopment against fortified defense, and that Japan held. Losses: USA 398 (3%), Japan 2,276 (56%).

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 wingInfantry3,065
USA centreInfantry4,086
USA right wingInfantry3,065
USA reserveInfantry2,554
USA artillery (329 guns)Artillery2,365
USA armour (126 tanks)Armour630
Mg ArnoldCommander—
In this plan15,765

Japan

Lcol Yoshida

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry828
Japan centreInfantry1,104
Japan right wingInfantry828
Japan reserveInfantry690
Japan artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Lcol YoshidaCommander—
In this plan4,050

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan15,7644,050
Losses, this plan3982,276

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 527, “Kochi Ridge-Onaga Iii”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
72 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
USAattacker15,7643980329Double envelopment; Repulse; Stalemate
Japandefender4,0502,276040Defensive/offensive 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.