World Battlefronts: How Effective Is 2%?

The Navy admitted last week that six more U.S. ships had been hit off Okinawa. Five of them were destroyers, whose casualties totaled 464 officers and men: the Twiggs* and the William D. Porter had been sunk; the Ingraham, Newcomb and Leutze had been damaged. The sixth was the Liberty ship Josiah Smiling. All were hit by Kamikaze (Divine Wind) suicide planes except the Twiggs, which may have been struck by an aerial torpedo. Three British carriers and one destroyer (total casualties: 104) were also added to the list of Kamikaze victims last week.

Admiral William F. ("Bull") Halsey had ridiculed the...

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