Two Teams, One Goal

With victory in sight at Okinawa, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz made a routine switch in his command team last week. Cold, calculating Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance and his Fifth Fleet staff were given a respite after four months of continuous sea duty, during which Iwo Jima was taken and Okinawa all but secured. Out with Spruance came hard-driving Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, commander of the Fleet Amphibious Force, and gnomish Vice Admiral Marc Andrew Mitscher, the wizard of carrier war.

While Spruance and Mitscher set up temporary headquarters alongside Nimitz at Guam, to plan future operations,* ebullient Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Third Fleet boss, again took over the command at sea. With him as amphibious force commander went lean Vice Admiral Harry Wilbur Hill, and as commander of the fast carrier task forces, pint-sized, peppery Vice Admiral John Sidney McCain.

Halsey's Calling Cards. Halsey and McCain lost no time in throwing their first punch: the big battleships were promptly ordered to fire a few salvos of one-ton shells at Japanese positions on Okinawa. Said Halsey: "I just wanted to leave my calling card." Aircraft from McCain's carriers pounded airfields on Kyushu, closest of the Jap islands to Okinawa, and a nesting place for .Kamikaze aircraft flying to attack the U.S. fleet. The first day the weather was atrocious; by the second day, the weather improved--but so did Jap fighter opposition. U.S. flyers reported that the enemy had a new, fast plane of high performance, and "very experienced pilots employing aggressive tactics similar to the American."

How bitter the Kamikaze attacks had been during Spruance's tour at sea was disclosed in casualty figures. From March 18 to May 23, the Navy had 4,270 men listed as dead or missing, and 4,171 wounded--"the greatest naval casualties encountered in any of our operations to this time." For his tenacity in such rugged combat, Spruance was awarded the Navy Cross.

Despite the casualty record, "Bull" Halsey dismissed the Jap suicide planes as "no real menace but a hell of a nuisance." He scorned Japanese Premier Suzuki's declaration that the battle for Okinawa was the decisive engagement of the war: "They've been saying that about every battle from the Solomons on up."

*Turner was back in Washington on leave.

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