Ground units : Tenth Army. Naval units : Fifth Fleet. Ground units : 32nd Army. Naval units : Combined Fleet. United States Navy. Royal Navy. Royal Australian Navy. Royal New Zealand Navy. Royal Canadian Navy. Ground forces. Imperial Japanese Navy. Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. Second Sino-Japanese War. The day battle on Okinawa itself lasted from April 1, until June 22, After a long campaign of island hopping , the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the island as a staging point for Operation Downfall , the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands , mi km away.
Army 7th , 27th , 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions with the 1st , 2nd , and 6th Marine Divisions , to seize the island. The Tenth Army was unique because it had its own Tactical Air Force joint Army-Marine command and was supported by combined naval and amphibious forces. Opposing the Allied forces on the ground was the Japanese Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's Thirty-Second Army , a mixed force consisting of regular army troops, naval infantry and conscripted local Okinawans.
Total Japanese troop strength on the island was about , at the onset of the invasion. In the naval operations surrounding the battle, both sides lost considerable numbers of ships and aircraft, including the Japanese battleship Yamato.
After the battle, Okinawa provided the victorious Allies with a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in close proximity to Japan as they planned to invade the Japanese home islands. Turner until the amphibious phase was completed, after which he would report directly to Admiral Raymond A. Total aircraft provided by the US Navy, Marine and Army Air Force exceeded 3, over the course of the battle, including fighters, attack aircraft, scout planes, bombers and dive-bombers.
The British naval contingent accompanied British naval aircraft and included a British Commonwealth fleet with Australian , New Zealand and Canadian ships and personnel. The Japanese land campaign mainly defensive was conducted by the 67,strong 77, according to some sources regular 32nd Army and some 9, Imperial Japanese Navy troops at Oroku Naval Base only a few hundred of whom had been trained and equipped for ground combat , supported by 39, drafted local Ryukyuan people including 24, hastily drafted rear militia called Boeitai and 15, non-uniformed laborers.
