Robert Gandt - The Twilight Warriors

ALSO BY ROBERT GANDT

NONFICTION

S EASON OF S TORMS
The Siege of Hong Kong 1941

C HINA C LIPPER
The Age of the Great Flying Boats

S KYGODS
The Fall of Pan Am

B OGEYS AND B ANDITS
The Making of a Fighter Pilot

F LY L OW , F LY F AST
Inside the Reno Air Races

I NTREPID
The Epic Story of Americas Most Legendary Warship (with Bill White)

FICTION

W ITH H OSTILE I NTENT

A CTS OF V ENGEANCE

B LACK S TAR

S HADOWS OF W AR

T HE K ILLING S KY

B LACK S TAR R ISING

BROADWAY

Copyright 2010 by Robert Gandt

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Broadway Books,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

BROADWAY BOOKS and the Broadway Books colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gandt, Robert L.
The twilight warriors : the deadliest naval battle of World War II and the men who fought it / Robert Gandt.1st ed.
p. cm.
1. World War, 19391945CampaignsJapanOkinawa Island. 2. World War, 19391945Naval operations, American. 3. United States. NavyHistoryWorld War, 19391945. 4. United States. NavyBiography. I. Title.
D767.99.O45G36 2010
940.5425229dc22 2010014062

eISBN: 978-0-7679-3243-1

v3.1

FOR PAULA AND PHOEBE WITH LOVE

O LD MEN FORGET: YET ALL SHALL BE FORGOT ,

B UT HELL REMEMBER WITH ADVANTAGES

W HAT FEATS HE DID THAT DAY .

HENRY V TO HIS TROOPS ON THE EVE OF THEIR VICTORY AT AGINCOURT, 1415 (SHAKESPEARE, KING HENRY V )

M ANY OF THESE THINGS I SAW
A ND SOME OF THEM I WAS .

VIRGIL, THE AENEID

CONTENTS

TIME LINE

1944

JUNE 17 At Saipan, Admirals King, Nimitz, Spruance discuss Okinawa as next major stepping-stone. SEPTEMBER 15 Air Group 10 re-formed under Cmdr. J. J. Hyland. OCTOBER 2326 Battle of Leyte Gulf. IJN suffers calamitous defeat. NOVEMBER 25 USS Intrepid severely damaged by two kamikazes off the Philippines.

1945

JANUARY 26 Spruance assumes command of U.S. Fifth Fleet; Mitscher takes over Task Force 58. FEBRUARY 10 Vice Adm. Ugaki takes command of IJN Fifth Air Fleet. FEBRUARY 19 U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima. FEBRUARY 20 Intrepid deploys to join Task Force 58 at Okinawa. MARCH 16 Iwo Jima declared secure. MARCH 18 Air Group 10 flies combat missions against Japanese mainland. MARCH 19 USS Franklin struck by Japanese dive-bomber. MARCH 2629 U.S. 77th Inf. Division captures Kerama Retto. APRIL 1 Love Day. U.S. invasion of Okinawa begins. APRIL 67 Kikusui No. 1. First massed kamikaze attack. APRIL 7 IJN battleship Yamato and five escorts sunk by Task Force 58 aircraft. APRIL 1213 Kikusui No. 2. APRIL 1516 Kikusui No. 3. APRIL 16 Intrepid struck by kamikaze, withdraws from Okinawa. APRIL 1621 77th Infantry Div. captures Ie Shima. APRIL 18 Ernie Pyle killed on Ie Shima. APRIL 20 6th Marine Div. secures Motobu Peninsula. APRIL 2728 Kikusui No. 4. MAY 34 Kikusui No. 5. MAY 46 Japanese counterattack in southern Okinawa. MAY 1011 Kikusui No. 6. MAY 11 Bunker Hill hit by two kamikazes, out of the war. MAY 2325 Kikusui No. 7. MAY 17 Vice Adm. Turner relieved by Vice Adm. Harry Hill. MAY 27 Spruance and Mitscher relieved by Halsey and McCain. MAY 2729 Kikusui No. 8. MAY 30JUNE 4 Japanese 32nd Army withdraws to southern positions on Okinawa. JUNE 37 Kikusui No. 9. JUNE 18 Lt. Gen. Buckner killed on Okinawa. USMC Maj. Gen. Geiger takes command. JUNE 2122 Kikusui No. 10. JUNE 21 Lt. Gen. Ushijima and Lt. Gen. Cho commit ritual suicide. JUNE 21 End of organized resistance on Okinawa. AUGUST 6 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. AUGUST 9 Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. AUGUST 15 Next page