bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Japan > Order of Battle > OOB - Iwo Jima & Okinawa, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 21 Mar 2024.
This webpage provides an organizational context to two deadly battles fought south of the Japanese home islands in the first half of 1945.
This webpage provides an organizational context to two deadly battles fought south of the Japanese home islands in the first half of 1945.
- on the island of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 750 miles south of the Japanese capital of Tokyo, by the US Marine Corps in the late winter of 1945.
- on Okinawa and nearby islands in the Ryukyu Island chain, 500 miles south of the Japanese home island of Kyushu, by the US Army and Marine Corps in the spring of 1945.
Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February-26 March 1945, see also WWII Japan > Iwo Jima & Okinawa > Iwo Jima
V Marine Amphibious Corps (Schmidt).
- 3rd Marine Division (Erskine): 19 February 1945–
- 4th Marine Division (Cates): 19 February 1945–
- 5th Marine Division (Rockey): 19 February 1945–
- 147th Infantry Regiment (sep.): 21 March 1945–
Ryukyu Islands Campaign, aka Battle of Okinawa, 26 March-2 July 1945
see also WWII Japan > Iwo Jima & Okinawa > Land Battle of Okinawa
see also WWII Japan > Iwo Jima & Okinawa > Land Battle of Okinawa
Tenth Army (Buckner, Geiger, Stilwell).
XXIV Army Corps (Hodge)
XXIV Army Corps (Hodge)
- 77th Infantry Division (Bruce): 26 Mar–27 June1945
- 7th Infantry Division (Arnold): 1 April–8 September 1945
- 96th Infantry Division (Bradley): 1 Apr 1945–
- 27th Infantry Division (Griner): 9 April 1945–
- 1st Marine Division (del Valle): 1 Apr 1945–
- 6th Marine Division (Shepherd): 1 Apr 1945
- 2nd Marine Division (Watson, Hunt) (elts.):
- The main landing, on Okinawa's west coast, took place on 1 April 1945. Other smaller nearby islands were invaded both before and after 1 April.
- On 18 June, General Buckner was killed by debris from a Japanese shell blast, and Tenth Army command temporarily passed to General Geiger of the Marine Corps. General Joseph Stilwell then assumed command on 23 June.
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII Japan > Order of Battle > OOB - Iwo Jima & Okinawa webpage:
- The page header map, Japan Today: CIA - The World Factbook 2021. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2021. - https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/japan/map.