The enemy on Okinawa had been com pressed into a minute fraction of the island's area no more than 20 of its 485 sq. mi. and U.S. ground forces called for fire support from the fleet's guns to soften another stubborn line, the last on which the enemy could stand. Along the Yaeju-Dake escarpment, 3,000 yds. long, 600 ft. high, including a 300-ft. cliff, perhaps half of the 15,000 or so surviving Japanese were dug in. They had scores of fortified caves, from each of which they would have to be burned...
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