Last week Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz posted the score for a month of his task forces' sweeps against the Japanese homeland and the Ryukyus invasion campaign. The enemy losses were staggering: more than 100 warships and auxiliary vessels sunk, 2,569 planes destroyed.
But U.S. naval forces had taken losses, too: five destroyers,*a destroyer transport, two ammunition ships, two mine-craft, four smaller vessels. The cost in men in the Ryukyus (Okinawa) operation told a truly surprising story: 989 officers and men of the fleet killed, 2,220 wounded. 1,491 missing; ashore, 478 Army men and...
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