Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Advance from the Beach

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 2 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.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmourCentreLeft wingRight wingReserve01 km2 kmN

One of the 28 engagements of the Battle of Okinawa recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 2 in date order). USA (US 96th Div(+), 19,082 men under Mg Bradley) attacked Japan (Jap 1st Spec Est Rgt(-), 2,000 men under Lcol Aoyanagi) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack against delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 282 (1%), Japan 1,588 (79%).

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 Bradley

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry4,072
USA centreInfantry5,429
USA right wingInfantry4,072
USA reserveInfantry3,393
USA artillery (95 guns)Artillery1,425
USA armour (138 tanks)Armour690
Mg BradleyCommander—
In this plan19,081

Japan

Lcol Aoyanagi

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry480
Japan centreInfantry640
Japan right wingInfantry480
Japan reserveInfantry400
Lcol AoyanagiCommander—
In this plan2,000

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan19,0822,000
Losses, this plan2821,588

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 538, “Advance From The Beach”, 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
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Delaying action
Front width
5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker19,082282095Frontal attack; Penetration
Japandefender2,0001,58800Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages training +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.