Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Hill 95-I

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 22 in date order). USA (US 7th Inf Div(+), 16,091 men under Mg Arnold) attacked Japan (Jap 44th Ind Mixed Bde(-), 3,500 men under Lg Ushijima) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 2.5 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that neither side won. Losses: USA 193 (1%), Japan 1,222 (35%).

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 wingInfantry3,251
USA centreInfantry4,335
USA right wingInfantry3,251
USA reserveInfantry2,709
USA artillery (129 guns)Artillery1,935
USA armour (122 tanks)Armour610
Mg ArnoldCommander—
In this plan16,091

Japan

Lg Ushijima

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry797
Japan centreInfantry1,062
Japan right wingInfantry797
Japan reserveInfantry664
Japan artillery (12 guns)Artillery180
Lg UshijimaCommander—
In this plan3,500

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan16,0913,500
Losses, this plan1931,222

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 534, “Hill 95-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 draw
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
2.5 km (attacker), 2.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker16,0911930129Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Japandefender3,5001,222012Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages morale +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.