Map No. 18: Yae-Take (6th Marine Division)
Behind reconnaissance units and tanks the 29th Marines advanced on 7 April into Nago, a medium-sized town nestling in the deep bend where Motobu juts out westward from the island. A spearhead drove north to Taira, cutting Motobu off from the rest of Okinawa; other troops started west from Nago along the coast road to Awa. Here for the first time there was evidence that he troops were meeting not stragglers but outposts of an organized defense, for the marines became involved in a few small fire fights and met some organized rifle fire. They had reached Motobu Peninsula, which for some time was to be the focus of the III Amphibious Corps' effort.
Motobu Peninsula was largely unknown territory to the Americans. Much of the interior was cloud-covered when the first photographs were taken; later photographs failed to disclose important trails hidden under the trees; it was only after a Japanese map had been captured that the complete road network was made clear. To gain a better idea of the terrain of Motobu and the nature of the enemy positions, the 6th Marine Division conducted an intensive reconnaissance of the peninsula.
The Reconnaissance Company on 7 April followed the road around the southern and western coasts of Motobu. Broken bridges forced the troops to leave the tanks behind and to proceed on foot. Just offshore five LCI's moved slowly along, firing into the hills and cliffs ahead of the troops. The company rounded the southwestern corner of Motobu and drew up abreast of the silent island of Sesoko. After exploring the deserted town of Suga the troops marched back. Not a shot had been fired at them. A prisoner of war said later that the Americans had been under constant observation but that the Japanese had let them pass, waiting for bigger game.
The marines found the peninsula to be virtually a country in itself, inhabited by mountain farmers who dug out their plots on steep slopes. As Motobu broadened out, the area inland rose in a series of slopes topped by a sprawling, twisted mass of rocky ridges and ravines called Yae-Take, the highest points of which were close to 1,500 feet. This mass was to prove the critical terrain feature of the peninsula. The lower ridges were heavily wooded; the upper areas were covered with grass and a few stunted trees. Hills bordered Motobu Peninsula on its western end, broken only where the Manna River ran through to the inlet on which Toguchi was located. On the northern side a small group of islands formed a protecting harbor; here the Japanese had established a midget submarine base, a torpedo station, and an operating point for suicide boats. The more important towns lay on the flatlands along the coast. Two towns in the interior were to prove tactically important: Manna, one and a half miles east of Toguchi, and Itomi, two miles northeast of Yae-Take. (See Map No. XIV.)
FIRE BOMBING aided the advance in northern Okinawa. A Marine fighter plane (F4U) has flown low and dropped its fire bomb on an enemy-held slope in the rugged north.
From 8 to 11 April the 29th Marines made efforts to fix the position of the enemy on Motobu. The 2d Battalion struck out to the north coast of the peninsula but encountered only occasional Japanese soldiers. The other battalions of the 29th found a different situation in the area around Yae-Take. The 3d Battalion reached Toguchi on 10 April, despite a brief shelling en route by two enemy artillery pieces and heavy mortars which caused sixteen casualties. From Nago the 1st Battalion drove inland in a northwesterly direction to Itomi, overcoming a small ambush at the approaches to the town. The 1st and 3d Battalions, 29th Marines, were now separated from each other only by the 3-mile trail between Itomi and the Toguchi area; they had almost surrounded Yae-Take.
Closing the ring around Yae-Take proved to be difficult. When the 3d Battalion of the 29th tried to push inland east from Toguchi, the marines were stopped in the narrow defiles in the Manna area by mortar and machine-gun fire. The 1st Battalion of the 29th picked its way from Itomi along a winding trail bordered by steep slopes. When the men were close to Manna and could see the ocean, Japanese mortars and machine guns opened up from the heights. The enemy fire split up the column, and the marines withdrew to Itomi, forcing their way past another ambush on the way back.
By 11 April the intelligence officer of the 6th Marine Division could draw a great red oval on his map of Motobu and set up fairly accurately the outermost limits of enemy resistance. After further intense patrolling around Yae-Take on 12 and 13 April, during which the marines had frequent brushes with enemy groups, more information came in on the enemy's defenses and probable plan. Colonel Udo, apparently adopting a passive defense, was not sending his men out of the Yae-Take area; moreover, he was cautiously husbanding his troops and ammunition by not engaging the American forces until late in the afternoon, when it was too late for them to send an expedition into the hills. It was already apparent that he hoped to keep alive a center of guerilla resistance and to delay the Americans rather than destroy them.
Colonel Udo's command post in a ravine on Yae-Take had excellent radio and telephone communications with strategically located outposts. The Japanese were well prepared for mountain warfare; they knew the trails and had horses, the best means of transportation over this terrain. The enemy was especially strong in automatic weapons, among them 25-mm. naval guns set in emplacements in the hill masses. Though the forces in the north were generally weak in equipment and supplies, the best of what was available had been concentrated in Motobu. With mortars and machine guns that were easily carried, with fixed 25-mm. guns, and with at least a battery of field artillery, Colonel Udo might well have hoped to maintain for a considerable time his control of this mountain stronghold.
Under orders to "destroy remaining enemy forces on Motobu," the 6th Marine Division on 13 April laid plans for the assault on the Yae-Take positions. The plan was for the 1st and 2d Battalions, 4th Marines, and the 3d Battalion, 29th, all under the command of Col. Alan Shapley, to attack Yae-Take from the west. From the east the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 29th were to march from Itomi and occupy the high hills north of the Itomi-Manna road. A battle of maneuver and of opportunity was in prospect since units could not maintain contact. Company and battalion leaders would have to decide methods of approach up the ridges and narrow valleys, and to change those methods on their own initiative when necessary. The infantry would have to depend on its organic weapons; artillery and air strikes would prove more effective when the heights were taken, but tanks were out of the question.
The 6th Marine Division could now focus its effort on the Yae-Take defenses without fear of major diversion to its rear on northern Okinawa. On 13 April, after a fast trip along the west coast by foot, LVT, and truck, the 2d Battalion, 22d Marines, reached Hedo Point at the north tip of Okinawa. On the way the marines had met virtually no opposition. Other elements of the 22d worked along the east coast of northern Okinawa. From bivouac areas on the coast, company patrols penetrated deep into the mountainous interior of the island. The patrols reconnoitered the interior on trips lasting several days; they then returned to the coast, where they were picked up by LVT's.
Nago, the site of the division command post, was now a nerve center; supplies for the operations were being brought to its harbor by LST's as the long road haul over the isthmus had been largely abandoned. Control of roads south of Nago had been transferred to Corps; division engineers were now assembling bridging material for use on Motobu. The rapid advance strained every resource of the shore parties, who had based their plans on the expectation that the division would be near the Hagushi beaches for the first fifteen days; supplies and gear, however, rolled ahead with the troops.
PUSHING TO YAE-TAKE, infantrymen of the 6th Marine Division pause on a mountain top while artillery shells a Japanese position. Meanwhile another group of marines (below) makes its way up a hillside, probing cave openings and watching for Japanese to show themselves.