Early the next morning the Franklin regained her own power and could steam at 9 knots. The cruiser had been towing here at 6 knots and the repair parties on board were working continuously pumping out the ship as there was a large hole aft and we found a body floating from her. We picked it up and identified it as a Marine Sergeant. We buried him at sea and the next day the Franklin called for volunteers to come aboard and help remove the dead. The Officers Quarters was blocked and all the officers inside were dead. We carried her out of the danger zone and started back to rejoin the force to the north. On the way back we sank our first mine.
Our carrier planes started working on Okinawa Jima on the 23rd and we were with them and on March 26 we found the second mine bobbing along the surface like a big cork. We exploded this one and shrapnel rained on the side of the ship. We had only missed this one by about 30 ft. On March 27 a Japanese torpedo plane came in and dropped a torpedo so close to a destroyer that it went through the bow of the destroyer and came out on the other side before it ever touched the water. As a torpedo isn’t armed until it goes so far through the water it did not explode until it was away from the side of the ship and all the damaged was a hole that was quickly repaired on both the tin can’s sides.
On March 28 we left at high speed to engage the Japanese fleet. We were supposed to hit here during the night and we sent up large air strikes late in the afternoon to soften up the enemy because the force had been reported almost as large as ours. Our strikes did not return until after dark and believe me many a man was alone with his thoughts especially on our ship as we were to be the first to make a torpedo run if the occasion demanded. Everyone was checking fire hoses and inflating the rubber life rafts so this did not make us feel any better. All the crew was busy sharpening up knives and breaking out their water proof flashlights and checking their life jackets. They were preparing for the worst. But we were to be still waiting for the planes reported no fleet and we returned back to Okinawa Jima. On our way back we found the third mine and sank it also. This brings our grand total to 7 planes shot down, 14 American pilots rescued, 2 shore bombardments and 3 Japanese mines sunk.
We took on stores at sea on March 30 for the first time in Naval history. We took on 12 tons o stores while underway. We are still operating around Okinawa Jima preparatory to the large invasion on April 1st.
On April 1st which this year is April Fools Day, Easter Sunday as well as (Love Day) we are still off shore at Okinawa Jima and at 0830 which was the zero hour our troops started ashore for the invasion of Okinawa Jima. The first was of troops were nearly all killed although the second wave was fired upon by mortar fire they went ashore. The landings were made near the town of Naha which is the largest city in the entire group of islands having a population of about 65,000 people. During the recent pre-invasion bombardment however the city is estimated to be 90% destroyed and very few building s remain standing.
One thing in our favor was as usual, we outwitted the Japanese because all their barricades and breastworks faced the Pacific side of the island whereas we came in behind them on the China Sea side. So we caught them so that their defenses were useless. Before the day was over we had moved our positions in nearly 5 miles and had already captured on of the three main airfields and were very near another. The only heavy resistance we encountered came late in the afternoon when we met large infantry forces. Our tanks which were landed with the second wave spearheaded the attack and everything was then in our favor. It is estimated that there are 450,000 peoples on Okinawa and approximately 75,000 soldiers so the island has quite a large number of people to fight.
We landed 4 divisions of soldiers and two divisions of Marines and the first day everything seemed to be going in our favor.