Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Capture of Yuza-Dake/Yaeju-Dake Escarpment

12 June 1945
Okinawa
Victory for USA

All battles Battle of Okinawa: engagement 27 of 28 The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

One of the 28 engagements of the Battle of Okinawa recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 27 in date order). USA (US 96th Div(+), 19,047 men under Mg Bradley) attacked Japan (Jap 44th Ind Mixed Bde(-)(+), 3,250 men under Lg Ushijima) in Okinawa. The CAA Database of Battles records 120 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 576 (3%), Japan 3,200 (98%).

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

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	3,748
USA centre	Infantry	4,997
USA right wing	Infantry	3,748
USA reserve	Infantry	3,123
USA artillery (206 guns)	Artillery	2,857
USA armour (115 tanks)	Armour	575
Mg Bradley	Commander	—
In this plan		19,048

Japan

Lg Ushijima

Unit	Arm	Men
Japan left wing	Infantry	762
Japan centre	Infantry	1,016
Japan right wing	Infantry	762
Japan reserve	Infantry	635
Japan artillery (5 guns)	Artillery	75
Lg Ushijima	Commander	—
In this plan		3,250

What the sources report

	USA	Japan
Strength, this plan	19,047	3,250
Losses, this plan	576	3,200

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 548, “Capture Of Yuza-Dake/Yaeju-Dake Escarpment”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 120 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width: 3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	19,047	576	0	206	Frontal attack; Penetration
Japandefender	3,250	3,200	0	5	Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · morale +1 · logistics +1 · momentum +1 · technology +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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 548 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Okinawa · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.