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Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Advance to Shuri Line Outposts

All battlesBattle of Okinawa: engagement 4 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 wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmour01 km2 kmN

One of the 28 engagements of the Battle of Okinawa recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 4 in date order). USA (US 96th Div(+), 18,388 men under Mg Bradley) attacked Japan (Jap 12th Ind Inf Bn(-)(+), 2,900 men under Lg Fujioka) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 555 (3%), Japan 2,470 (85%).

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 wingInfantry3,698
USA centreInfantry4,931
USA right wingInfantry3,698
USA reserveInfantry3,082
USA artillery (174 guns)Artillery2,610
USA armour (74 tanks)Armour370
Mg BradleyCommander—
In this plan18,389

Japan

Lg Fujioka

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry592
Japan centreInfantry789
Japan right wingInfantry592
Japan reserveInfantry493
Japan artillery (32 guns)Artillery435
Lg FujiokaCommander—
In this plan2,901

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan18,3882,900
Losses, this plan5552,470

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 539, “Advance To Shuri Line Outposts”, 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 attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker18,3885550174Frontal attack
Japandefender2,9002,470032Defensive 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.