ENTERING NAHA, Marine patrols move through deserted streets in the western part of town. The walled compounds around the houses, typical of Oriental urban structures, gave good cover for snipers.
The unmolested patrols into Naha on 24 May led to the crossing of the lower Asato on 25 May by the Reconnaissance Company of the 6th Marine Division, which during the day penetrated deep into Naha west of the north-south canal that bisects the city. Only an occasional Japanese straggler was met; sniper fire was almost nonexistent. A few Okinawan civilians who were still hiding in the rubble of the city said they had seen only scattered 5- or 6-man Japanese patrols during the past week.{422} The rubble of Naha was deserted. The Reconnaissance Company dug in without packs and gear to hold the gain so easily obtained.
Naha had no tactical value other than to afford the Americans a route of travel southward to the next objective. The city was located in a wide coastal flat at the mouth of the Kokuba River; it was dominated by the high ground of the Oroku Peninsula across the channel to the south, and by a ridge that curved around the city and coastal flat from the northeast to southwest along the Kokuba estuary.
On 27 May one company of the 2d Battalion, 22d Marines, crossed the Asato, passed through the lines of the Reconnaissance Company, and pressed deeper into the western part of Naha. The next morning at daylight the marines moved on toward the Kokuba estuary; reaching it at 0900, they received hardly a shot as they picked their way among the demolished buildings and the heaps of debris. The effort of a platoon to press forward to scout the situation at the approaches to Ona-Yama Island, which lies in the middle of the Kokuba Channel opposite the south end of the Naha Canal, failed. The marines were met by heavy machine-gun fire, and in their withdrawal the platoon leader was killed. All of Naha west of the canal and north of Kokuba was now in possession of the marines. Steps were taken quickly to defend this portion of the city. Eight 37-mm. antitank guns were ranged along the sea wall bordering the north bank of the Kokuba estuary, and a line of marines took up positions behind the sea wall. The 1st Armored Amphibious Battalion held and patrolled the seaward side of the city.
During the night of 28 May engineers put three footbridges across the canal, and before dawn the 1st Battalion, 22d Marines, crossed to Telegraph Hill in east Naha, where a fight raged throughout the day without noticeable gains. On 30 May the 2d and 3d Battalions, 22d Marines, crossed the canal, passed through the 1st Battalion, and took up the assault. Enemy machine guns emplaced in burial tombs on Hill 27 in east Naha temporarily checked the infantry. During most of the day tanks were unable to reach the position, but in the afternoon three worked their way along the road north of the hill, and their direct fire enabled the marines to seize it.
The Kokuba Hills extend eastward from the edge of Naha along the north side of the Kokuba estuary and the Naha-Yonabaru valley. They guard the southern and southwestern approaches to the rear of Shuri. With the 6th Marine Division pressing south along the west coast, defense of this terrain was vital to the enemy in preventing an envelopment of Shuri from Naha. On the night of 22-23 May the headquarters of the Japanese 44th Independent Mixed Brigade moved from Shuri to Shichina village, in the Kokuba Hills, for better control of the operations on this flank.{423}The Japanese upon evacuating Naha took positions in the high ground in the eastern part of the city and the semicircle of hills beyond. There the fight on the enemy's left flank entered its next phase.
Since the crossing of the upper Asato on 23 May, the left (east) elements of the 6th Marine Division had encountered continuing opposition. The 4th Marines held this part of the line, and suffered heavy casualties as it tried to press forward in the mud of the flooded valley and low clay hills. By the night of 25 May Company E had been reduced to forty enlisted men and one officer. That day the 1st Battalion took the village of Machishi, but with bridges washed out and the torrential rains making the terrain impassable for tanks it was learned that infantry could go ahead only with heavy casualties. On 28 May the 29th Marines relieved the 4th Marines, and, although opposed by enemy small-arms fire, by the close of the day it had pressed to within 800 yards of the Kokuba River.
Both the 22d and the 29th Marines were now attacking east against the hill mass centering on Hill 4.6, west of Shichina village and north of the Kokuba estuary. After the fall of Hill 27 on 30 May there was a rapid advance of several hundred yards until the defenses of Hill 46 were reached. Then another intensive battle was fought in the rain and mud. Fourteen tanks clawed their way into firing position on the last day of the month and put direct fire into the enemy. Even then intense machine-gun and mortar fire denied the hill to a strong coordinated attack, although large gains were made. Throughout the night American artillery pounded Hill 46. The next morning, on 1 June, the assault regiments took the hill, broke through the Shichina area, and then seized Hill 98 and the line of the north fork of the Kokuba.
When elements of the 96th Division seized the east face of Conical Hill and of Sugar Hill at the southern end of the Conical hogback, a path was cleared for the execution of a flanking maneuver around the right end of the Japanese line. The flanking force, once through the corridor and past Yonabaru, could sweep to the west up the Yonabaru valley and encircle Shuri from the rear. The main force of the Japanese army would then be trapped. This was the plan which the XXIV Corps was ready to put into effect when night fell on 21 May.{424}
Strengthened by 1,691 replacements and 546 men returned to duty from hospitals since it left the lines on 9 May, the 7th Division moved up to forward assembly areas just north of Conical Hill and prepared to make the dash through the corridor. At 1900 on 21 May the 184th Infantry, chosen by General Arnold to lead the way, was in place at Gaja Ridge, at the northern base of Conical. The initial move of the envelopment was to be made in the dead of the night and in stealth.{425} General Buckner felt that "if the 7th can swing round, running the gauntlet, it may be the kill."{426}
Rain began to fall an hour before Company G, 184th Infantry, the lead element, was scheduled to leave its assembly area. The rain increased rapidly until it was a steady downpour. Up to 0200 on 22 May, the hour of departure, the men huddled under their ponchos listening to the dull, heavy reverberations of the artillery preparation, which sounded even louder and nearer in the rain. Then, in single column, the company headed south through the black night, the rain, and the sludge. No one fired as two Japanese dodged into the shadows and the debris of Yonabaru, and at 0415 the company formed at a crossroads in the ruined town, platoons abreast, ready to push on to Spruce Hill. It accomplished this advance without incident. Once on the crest of Spruce Hill, Company G sent up a flare signaling Company F to come through and try to reach Chestnut Hill.
Daylight, a dull and murky gray, had come when Company F reached the crest of Chestnut, 435 feet above the coast 1,000 yards southeast of Yonabaru. Only one man was wounded in this phase of the assault. As Company F reached the crest of Chestnut and looked down over the southern slope, several enemy soldiers were spotted climbing the hill, apparently to take up defense positions. A soldier said as he looked at them that they "had better hold reveille a little earlier." Complete surprise had crowned the American effort. It was learned later that the Japanese command had not expected the Americans to make a night attack or to attack at all when tank and heavy-weapons support were immobilized by rain and mud.{427}
The 3d Battalion followed the 2d through Yonabaru. It then began advancing to the south toward juniper and Bamboo Hills on a line southwest of Chestnut, the other high ground which the 184th was to seize before it would be considered safe for the 32d Infantry to come through the corridor and turn west to cut behind Shuri. The attack continued on the rainy morning of 23 May, with the 2d and 3d Battalions pressing forward to these initial objectives. At the end of the day, except for a small gap between Company G on Juniper Hill and Company L on Bamboo Hill, the 184th Infantry had won a solid line stretching from the seacoast across the southern slope of Chestnut Hill and then across to juniper and Bamboo. In two rainy days the 184th had forced a 2,000-yard crack in the enemy's defenses south of Yonabaru and accomplished its mission. Now the 32d Infantry could begin the second and decisive phase of the enveloping plan.
While the 184th Infantry held the blocking line from Chestnut to Bamboo and thus protected the left flank and rear, the 32d Infantry was to drive directly west along the Naha-Yonabaru valley to cut off Shuri from the south. The success of the entire plan of encirclement depended upon the 32d Infantry's carrying out its part.
On 22 May, while the 184th Infantry was pressing south, Company F of the 32d Infantry moved to the southern tip of Conical Hill, just west of Yonabaru, to help protect the right side of the passage. The main body of the 32d Infantry, however, did not start moving until the morning of 23 May, after Colonel Green of the 284th Infantry radioed that his attack was going well and that it would be safe for the 32d to proceed. At 1045 on 23 May the 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry, passed through Yonabaru and headed west. Its initial objective was the string of hills west of Yonabaru and south of the Naha-Yonabaru road, centering on Oak Hill just below the village of Yonawa. By nightfall two battalions, the 2d and 3d, were deployed a mile southwest of Yonabaru facing west, ready to make their bid for envelopment. Already heavy machine-gun fire had slowed the advance and served notice that the enemy would bitterly oppose a drive up the Yonabaru valley. The continuing rains had by this time mired the tanks in their assembly areas north of Conical Hill, and the armor which commanders had counted on to spearhead the drive to the west was unable to function. Heavy assault guns likewise were immobilized. The infantry was on its own.{428}
During 24 May the 32d Infantry developed the line where the Japanese meant to check the westward thrust of the 7th Division. This line ran south from Mouse Hill (southwest of Conical Hill), crossed the Naha-Yonabaru road about a mile west of Yonabaru, and then bent slightly southwest to take in June and Mabel Hills, the latter being the key to the position. Mabel Hill guarded the important road center of Chan, which lay two miles almost directly south of Shuri. Oak Hill, an enemy strong point, was somewhat in front of this line. Tactically, it was apparent that this line protected the Shuri-Chan Karadera-Kamizato-Iwa road net, the easternmost of two routes of withdrawal south from Shuri.
The Japanese reacted slowly to the initial penetration below Yonabaru. Mortar and artillery fire, however, gradually increased. The scattered groups of second-class troops encountered plainly did not have the skill and determination of the soldiers manning the Shuri line. On 23 May elements of the Japanese 24th Divisionwere dispatched from Shuri to retake Yonabaru.{429} This effort took shape in numerous counterattacks on the night of 24-25 May against the 184th Infantry, which had just secured a lodgment on Locust Hill, a high, broad coral escarpment half a mile south of Chestnut Hill. At 0230 the Japanese counterattack also struck elements of the 32d Infantry west of Yonabaru. The enemy made some penetration of American lines at this point, and fighting continued until after dawn, when the Japanese assault force withdrew, leaving many dead behind.{430}
EAST COAST CORRIDOR, looking north along Highway 13 from Yonabaru. Conical Hill is just to left of Gaja.