WWII

There are no front lines on Okinawa, but that doesn’t mean there is any rest for the doughboy.

War in the Ryukus has brought on new and unorthodox tactics from an artillery viewpoint. For the first time in the history of warfare an entire field artillery of an army is living and fighting from underground positions.

For doughboys and leathernecks, the care of children started on the first day of the invasion, and from the way it keeps on, it looks as though “the Children’s Hour on Okinawa” will outlast Lillian Hellman’s play on Broadway.

There is nothing spectacular about the mop-up operation. That would be very nice except that men continue to die in skirmishes waged in caves, draws and canyons. These pitched, butter little battle do not make news.

Admiral Minoru Ota is dead. In a cave overlooking the completely levelled installations of the Naha harbor, with only the masts and stacks of sunken ships showing, the commanding officers of the Japanese Okinawa base forces committed suicide.

Now that censorship has been lifted on the details of flame-throwing tanks, it’s possible to tell how they clicked during the largest-scale tank action of the Okinawa campaign.