Lethality in Motion: Tactics 3

Transcription

1 Lethality in Motion: Tatis 3 The fighting on Okinawa had features that were all its own, but even so its dynamis bore a startling resemblane to the fiere no-man's-land fighting of World War I. The onditions of warfare for both sides, but espeially for the Japanese, were governed by the reality of the aves. The Okinawa aves were in some ways a unique response to the lethal mass of enemy artillery the IJA 32d Army faed, and given what they were intended to do, the aves were extremely suessful. ave Warfare The aves were largely responsible for the denseness and immobility of the fighting on Okinawa. Without them the Japanese would not have been able to ontinue to fight at all, and they greatly influened the tatis both sides found themselves using. As an operational devie, the Okinawa aves surpassed the trenh systems of World War I in some respets, and in their self-suffiieny the aves were an evolution toward the style of tunnel system used by the North Vietnamese at u hi. The ommand ave The most elaborate of the aves was the headquarters struture for the IJA 32d Army, far below Shuri astle (see figure 4). The headquarters tunnel ran 1,28 feet north to south, with side hambers and a side shaft angling to the left at the north end. The 5th Artillery ommand had its tunnel, about 2 yards long, just to the west. The 62d Division headquarters ave lay 3 yards to the east. 1 The 32d Army's ommand ave lay under sloping terrain, beneath 16 feet of earth at its deepest point, and beneath 5 to 1 feet for most of its length. The 32d's ommand funtions were all plaed in sixty yards of the northwestern extremity of the tunnel's side shaft. The ommanders were fortunate to be below Shuri astle rather than in it beause as the battle progressed its handsome buildings and parks were redued to a rubbled moonsape. 2 Unlike the smaller frontline aves, the headquarters ave had all walls faed with sawed planks and supported with squared beams. Aess shafts 41

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4 44 Shuri astle before and after the Okinawa battle

5 45 One of the vertial shafts that allowed aess to the Shuri headquarters ave Headquarters ave offie still showing a semblane of order despite demolition efforts by withdrawing Japanese

6 46 Motor that ran headquarters ave ventilator fan were provided with wooden ladders and landings every four yards or so. limbing straight up 5 to 1 feet in these shafts was arduous. The furnishings were simple but useful, rather like an IJA barraks. Offies were set up with desks and hairs and had eletriity. The ommander's pantry was notoriously well stoked, and seventy-two feet of tunnel at the south end served as the headquarters kithen. laborate measures were taken to lead the smoke outlets to points where they would be sreened from the Amerians' view. In the soldiers' areas, bunks ran lengthwise along the side of the tunnel. The funtions and spaes of the tunnels took on the quality of a warship. 3 As far as enemy fire was onerned, the Shuri ommand tunnel was ompletely safe. Life there, however, was not without its hardships. Aord-

7 ing to Yahara, the atmosphere was hot and humid-over 9 degrees Fahrenheit with 1 perent humidity. Walls sweated and desks and hairs were stiky with moisture. The inhabitants developed skin rashes beause their skin never dried. A large ventilator fan plaed in one of the aess shafts to bring in fresh air had a limited effet. Moreover, rie stored in the tunnels began to ferment in the sak, giving it a sour taste when served. Besides that, given the ommand staff, the sentries, the numerous messengers, and the headquarters ompany, there were over 1, troops in the tunnel. This made the air not only stuffy but also filled with human aromas. The press of people itself was a kind of hardship. 4 On the other hand, boosting morale, thirty bright young women did offie work in the ave, twelve Japanese and eighteen Okinawan, and had their own living quarters at the ave's south end. There were also some reature omforts. Staples and anned goods were stored in abundane, and tasty dinners were provided for the staff by the hef hief of Staff ho had brought from Fukuoka. ho had also brought a pastry hef, who prepared the refreshments for afternoon tea. Fresh vegetables were harder to ome by, but the sentries outside managed to forage some tomatoes and hinese abbage from neighboring gardens. Beer and sake were plentiful, and the ommander's abinet held respetable Soth whiskeys. Though igarettes soon grew moldy in the dampness of the ave, luky staff members oasionally ould get fresh amels, as Yahara did, from misarried Amerian parahute drops. 5 Besides the physial rigors, there were psyhologial pressures that aompanied ave life. The headquarters ave was a "nightless palae" where eletri lights burned day and night, whih was disorienting. Sine messengers ould move only at night,* the battle situation ould not begin to be pieed together until well after dark. The situation then had to be analyzed, a response determined, and orders drafted. The result was to reverse night and day for the staff, whih ould not omplete its work until just before dawn. Yahara wrote afterwards that he would fall asleep at dawn just as the Amerian bombardment was beginning, with "the feeling he was being dragged to the bottom of hell." The strange life of the aves, even though shielded from battle, took its toll. ven the formidable ho began mumbling in his sleep, "Mother, it hurts." 6 Line and Artillery aves Although the 32d Army headquarters tunnel was the most imposing of the aves, there were many other underground strutures, enough to house all 1, men of 32d Army underground, 6 miles of tunnels in all. These aves were all loated at the south end of Okinawa in an area three to twelve miles wide and sixteen miles long: the whole battle area was honey- *ommuniation below battalion level was by messenger. ommuniation at battalion level and above was by field telephone, but artillery bombardment often ut the telephone lines. Thus ommuniation even at battalion level and above was often by messenger. See 1th Army, Monograph, pt. I, set. D, hap. IV, p

8 48 ombed with defensive fortifiations. ah unit at ompany and battalion level was responsible for building its own tunnels. This seemed to guarantee that the job was done thoroughly but also meant that there was onsiderable variety in the tunnel patterns. It meant further that fire nets were not well integrated for units larger than battalion. 7 There was enough variety in the onstrution of the aves that one Amerian offier desribed them as "artful and fantasti." ven so, what mainly varied was size, funtion, and the degree to whih they were finished. The headquarters aves were the most elaborate. At the other extreme were the supply aves designed to hold ammunition and food. These differed from other tunnels in that they had wide mouths, wide shafts, and large hambers and did not have multiple openings. They were just modest underground storage rooms. One example of this type was found by Amerians near the north end of the Okinawa isthmus (see figure 5).8 Somewhat akin to this style was the underground barraks room. This type featured long underground shafts with one or several entranes, a vertial air dut, a hamber fifteen feet by fifteen feet by six feet for dining, and another hamber for sleeping. Like the storerooms, these underground barraks were not fortifiations. 9 r4 Qi K ~~~ T t 8' IL) I 124' =1 Figure 5. Typial storage ave Most of the honeyomb of tunnels the Japanese ompanies and battalions built for themselves, however, were underground fighting positions. Although these forts were made in a great variety of sizes and patterns, the priniples they followed were all remarkably the same: they were pillboxes (see figure 6). The ave pillbox positions were in a sense not underground. Beause of the undulating terrain and beause the Japanese used only reverse-slope tatis, their tehnique was to dig horizontal shafts into the hill or ridge opposite the one they intended to over with fire. Therefore,

9 49 A storage ave entryway A storage ave interior

10 5 Plan -I V U LIVl I I I '-.4 I "I' "' /,' I i 1 '/ // I ^ - _S--- J {I3 Iable-Reinfored Rope Ladder into Shaft f r"-.,1 _' i -46. i_ es Logs and Reinfored onrete Posts 2y2 Plan Tunnel (1) l) -j L I 2111 lz Q z >Z -- levation Sketh Figure 6. Typial pillbox aves R 4; Q 1 ri Q IO

11 when they looked out their fire ports, their perspetive was one of a person at ground level or above. The aves' entranes were made by extending the ave shaft to the rear of the same hill whose front slope had the fire port. One entered the tunnel from the rear, without desending. These so-alled aves might also be desribed as hilltop fortresses sine they offered omplete protetion while also ommanding the terrain. This may have kept the Japanese inhabitants' morale higher than that of their ounterparts in World War I trenhes or the aves of u hi. 51 Inonspiuous vertial entrane of the upper example of line ave represented in figure 6 There was variety in the pillbox patterns due both to how many men were available in an area to labor on a ave (and then dwell in it) and to what terrain features were available. Sometimes a whole round hilltop would be taken over with fire ports piered out of every side and multiple onealed entranes on the side the enemy was least likely to approah. The air ventilation shaft would be extended vertially. 1 More often defenders found themselves on a ontinuous ridge that, unlike the round-topped hills, did not offer the possibility of side shafts, so shafts were ut straight bak from the fire position. In the most elementary and most ommon of these, a shaft four and a half feet high and three and a half feet wide (as opposed to five feet by six feet in the deluxe Shuri headquarters ave) was pushed far bak into the hillside, with a vertial entry shaft only if the bak side of the hill was too far away. If there was a vertial entry shaft, it would have a simple rope and bamboo ladder, and its mouth would be overed by a wooden lid rafted like part of a traditional

12 52 i-re port ot the type of line ave represented in figure 6. The hard-to-see opening is indiated by a broken white line. oopered lid for pillbox ave entrane

13 53 Lids overed with sod beame nearly invisible Wooden beams supported earthen shafts

14 54 Vertial shaft of pillbox ave