On the afternoon of April 6, the 24th year of Taichu, all 3,000 officers and men of the "Yamato" gathered on the deck to listen to the captain read out the order for the attack sent by Vice Takeshi Toyoda, commander of the Combined Fleet. Pen ~ fun ~ Kaku www.biquge.info Since the Shimonoseki Strait had been blocked by mines laid by the U.S. military, the Japanese fleet had to go south along Kyushu Island through the Bungo Waterway. At 6 o'clock on April 7, 24, the fleet passed through the Osumi Strait, passing through Cape Sata, the southernmost point of Kyushu Island, and Ito decided to head west in a 280-degree course first, avoiding the search of American planes as much as possible, and then turning to Okinawa after dusk. In fact, as early as when the Japanese fleet passed through the Bungo Channel, it was discovered by the US submarines "Threadfinfish" and "Echinosaur" in the Bungo Channel, and the mission of these two submarines was to monitor the activities of the Japanese ships in the Bungo Channel, so they did not attack the Japanese ships, but only quickly reported the enemy situation to Spruance. Spruance received the report and immediately ordered Rear Admiral Deyo to command 6 battleships, 7 cruisers, and 21 destroyers of Task Force 54 to rapidly advance north from the waters off Okinawa, luring the Japanese fleet to the south as much as possible, so that it could not be supported by shore-based air forces and could not quickly withdraw to the mainland, so as to facilitate the attack by the aircraft carrier aircraft of Task Force 58; If the carrier-based aircraft failed to destroy it, the battleships and cruisers of Task Force 54 were annihilated by naval artillery fire. At the same time, Mitchell's 58th Task Force was ordered to be ready for battle. Mitchell immediately led the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Battalions of the 58th Task Force to the waters northeast of Okinawa in order to occupy a favorable sortie position, but the 2nd Brigade did not take part in the battle because it was replenishing on the water in the sea east of Okinawa.

At dawn on 7 April, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the 58th Task Force dispatched about 40 planes to search the sea north of Okinawa in a fan-out area, while the group of planes responsible for the assault mission was on standby on the deck of the aircraft carrier, and immediately took off to attack the Japanese ships as soon as they were discovered. At 8:32 a.m., the reconnaissance plane of the aircraft carrier "Essex" discovered the Japanese fleet moving at a speed of 12 knots and 300 degrees southwest of Zhen Island. When two seaplanes that were on air patrol took off from Okinagabu Island, they immediately rushed to the sea area where the target was located to follow and monitor them.

At 9:15 a.m., Mitchell sent 16 fighters to track and monitor the Japanese ship. The US planes circled outside the range of the Japanese anti-aircraft guns, overcame the difficulties of bad weather, always maintained contact with the Japanese ships, and constantly reported to Mitchell the position, course, and speed of the Japanese ships. At 12:30 p.m., US planes flew over the Japanese ships, and the Japanese fleet formed a diamond-shaped formation, with the "Yamato" in the center, and the cruisers and destroyers around it, marching at a speed of 26 knots. As the symbol of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, the sinking of the 68,000-ton giant battleship "Yamato" marked the complete destruction of the Combined Fleet, and at the same time declared the complete bankruptcy of the giant ship artillery doctrine.

At the same time that the US forces attacked the "Yamato," some US planes also launched attacks on the cruiser and destroyer "Yaji," and the "Yazu" had already lost the ability to maneuver, and the attack maneuvers carried out by the US bombers and torpedo planes were beautiful and brilliant, and they were simply textbook performances; the "Yaji" was hit by a total of seven torpedoes and 12 bombs, and capsized and sank at 14:05 a.m. The destroyers "Isokaze", "Asaka" and "Kasumi" were also severely damaged and had to sink on their own. When the "Yamato" sank, Yoshida Masayosa, the commander of the 41st Destroyer Group, took over the command, and while organizing the remnants of the ship to salvage the people who had fallen into the water, he sent a telegram to the commander of the combined fleet to report the battle situation and ask for instructions on the next move. At 16:39, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Toyota, decided to terminate the naval assault in view of the fact that the expected plan could no longer be realized, and Yoshida immediately returned to the Sasebo base on the 8th with the remaining four destroyers wounded.

Before the US battleship and cruiser formations were put into battle, the Japanese special attack fleet at sea was wiped out by US carrier-based aircraft, and the US military flew a total of 386 sorties, including 180 sorties of fighters, 75 sorties of bombers, and 131 sorties of torpedo planes, of which 10 were shot down by Japanese ships. Of the 11 submarines operated by the Japanese Navy in the waters off Okinawa, eight of them were sunk without any success due to the US antisubmarine forces and tight vigilance, and so far, the Japanese Navy's support for the defenders of Oshima has all failed, and although its air special attack operations have caused considerable losses to the US forces, they have not had a decisive impact on the entire landing campaign.

The ground battle on the island on the island had been relatively smooth until April 8, 24 April, and after the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions of the US Army captured the central region and divided the Japanese army into two parts, the US Army was divided into two routes, the 3rd Marine Corps to the north and the 24th Army to the south, gradually advancing. The 3rd Army in the north encountered only weak resistance before reaching the neck of Oshima, and it was not until April 8, 24th of the beginning of the Japanese army, that the northern half of the Japanese army was basically wiped out, and the 1st Marine Division reached Ariake Bay, and the 6th Marine Division reached the northernmost Hetozaki, and on April 21, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, all occupied the northern area of Oshima.

On April 16, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the 77th Division, which had captured Okinoirabu Island, landed on Ie Island west of Oshima, and after five days of fighting, occupied the island on the 21st. However, the 24th Army's offensive in the southern region was very difficult, because the main force of the Japanese army on Oshima was deployed in the south, and it made full use of the steep terrain such as cliffs, deep ravines and high valleys to build strong and concealed fortifications, so the US army's progress was extremely slow. Ushijima was originally prepared to launch a general counterattack on the airfield on April 8, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, but on the afternoon of April 7, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, it was discovered that hundreds of U.S. ships were moving in the sea near Naha.

On April 9, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, due to the stubborn resistance of the 24th Army, the advance was seriously blocked, and the US army had to put the 27th Division of the Ship-Keeping Reserve into the southern front to fight. On Friday, April 13, the twenty-fourth year of the first lunar month, on a black day, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in a hot spring in Georgia. The US troops, from the commander of the Supreme General to the ordinary soldiers, were all shocked and saddened. Nimitz sent a message of condolence to Mrs. Roosevelt on behalf of all the officers and men of the Pacific Theater. The Japanese army seized the opportunity to make a big fuss and wantonly spread leaflets entitled "The Tragedy of the United States," claiming that the special attack operation would sink all the US warships and orphan countless people. The Japanese base camp was impatient to urge Ushijima to seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack, under the repeated orders of the base camp, Ushijima launched a counterattack, but he did not invest all his strength in accordance with the instructions of the base camp, but retained a considerable part of the troops, and only invested part of the troops to counterattack the U.S. troops on the Jiashu Heights, the Japanese army first blew up the U.S. tanks with dynamites in their arms, and then charged the U.S. infantry who lost the cover of the tanks, and the U.S. troops retreated under the impact of the Japanese army, with nearly 5,000 dead and wounded, It was only with the heavy artillery and superior firepower of the follow-up troops that the Japanese offensive was contained. On April 19, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, three divisions of the U.S. 24th Army launched a large-scale attack from about 6.5 kilometers north of Naha, and at 5:40 a.m., 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, and 8 destroyers of the Navy first launched a fierce artillery bombardment of the Japanese position; At 6 o'clock, 27 artillery battalions of the army carried out a 40-minute artillery bombardment of the Japanese positions, firing a total of 19,000 shells, and then 650 aircraft of the Navy and Marine Corps also carried out aerial fire preparations on the Japanese positions, dropping a large number of bombs and napalm shells. After such a fierce and continuous fire attack, the 24th Army launched an attack, but the Japanese used the tunnels to evade the bombardment of the American army, and when the American artillery fire began to extend to the ground forces to attack, it entered the position to meet the battle, so the American offensive was broken up again and again. The Japanese army fully demonstrated its tenacious will to fight, every hill, every pillbox, every tunnel, and even every rock, the US army had to go through many bloody battles before it could be captured, and the fierce battle lasted for five days, and the progress of the US army was only a few meters! Everything is like a repetition of the battle for Iwo Jima, except that the Japanese have more strength and more area to fight.

The irascible Turner was so dissatisfied with the Army's slow progress that he even openly criticized the command and tactics of Buckner, the commander of the Tenth Army, causing a dispute between the Army and Navy services. On April 6, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, Admiral Vandergrift, commander of the US Marine Corps, arrived on Guam to inspect the Marines fighting on the Big Island. He was therefore advised to inspect the troops in Guam and Iwo Jima first. When Van der Graveft's inspection of Iwo Jima was over, Nimitz invited him to visit the Big Island with him, as the Army forces on the southern front had made no progress for several days, and the situation was not optimistic, and Nimitz felt the need to intervene. On 22 April 24, Nimitz and Van der Graveft flew to Oshima on a C-47 transport plane escorted by 12 fighters, and the next day, Nimitz, Van der Grift and Spruance inspected the area occupied by the U.S. forces on Oshima and discussed the battle situation with the army commander. Therefore, he asked the army to speed up the speed so that the support formation could get out of the dreaded Japanese suicide attack as soon as possible, but the commander of the 10th Army, Buckner, said that this was a ground operation, implying that the battle on the island was the business of the army and did not need the navy to intervene. Nimitz immediately replied coldly: "Yes, this is a ground operation, but I lose one and a half warships every day, so if I can't make a breakthrough in five days, I will draw other troops." At the strong request of the Navy, Buckner decided to transfer the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions to the Southern Front to intensify the frontal offensive instead of Vandergrift to carry out the landing behind the Japanese flank, and his opinion was agreed with by Nimitz.

On this day, the two lost B29 bombers took an overly southerly course that brought them into the air defense range of the Royal Chinese Air Force in the Ryukyu Islands, and after two warning aerial shots, the two dumbfounded planes finally corrected their course. He did not intend to anger the more than 200 advanced fighters of the Chinese Air Force on the Ryukyu Islands at this time, this is a terrorist force that can severely damage his fleet at any time, of course, he does not know that the Chinese Navy does not intend to let the Royal Air Force eat alone, and they have a more effective way to retain the American fleet.