Destroyers Evans and Hadley Bag 38 Planes In Action-Packed Hour-and-45 minute battle of Okinawa: In an action-packed hour-and-45 minute battle off Okinawa on May 11, the USS Evans and the USS Hugh W. Hadley, fighting side by side in a Damon and Pythias role, bagged 38 planes. With the assistance of a small group of Marine Corsair fighters they helped turn back 150 attacking aircraft. When the battle was over, 88 Japanese planes had hit the water. Both ships suffered damage in the conflict. The Evans took four suiciders on her decks, while the Hadley suffered hits that threatened to capsize her on the spot. Each survived the attack to return safely to base. The Evans was credited with 15 planes and four assists, while the Hadley, with 23 planes to her credit, established a new all-time Navy record for destroyers. Here is shown some of the damage suffered by the USS Evans, May 11, 1945.

The Battle of Okinawa (Hepburn: Okinawa-sen) (Romanized: Uchinaa ikusa), codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The 82-day battle lasted from April 1 until June 22, 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi (550 km) away. The United States created the Tenth Army, a cross-branch force consisting of the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th Infantry Divisions of the US Army with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Divisions of the Marine Corps, to fight on the island. The Tenth was unique in that it had its own tactical air force (joint Army-Marine command), and it was also supported by combined naval and amphibious forces. The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks, and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 75,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese, including drafted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. 149,425 Okinawans were killed, committed suicide or went missing, a significant proportion of the estimated pre-war local population of 300,000. 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 a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in proximity to Japan in preparation for a planned Allied invasion.

Sheet: 9 7/8 x 8 1/8

Ferrotyped prints are processed in such a way that they are shiny. The print has a sensitive surface, usually thinner, because it was put through a press while still wet.

Ferrotyped prints have a sensitive surface, usually shiny and thinner, because they are put through a press while still wet. Ferrotyping makes the surface of the photograph smoother. Light does not scatter as much on a smoother surface, so this increases contrast. That makes ferrotyped images better for press photography.

This object has the following keywords:

• Battle of Okinawa
• Corsairs
• Downing planes
• Imperial Japanese Army
• Invasion of Japan
• Japan
• Japanese Army
• Kadena Air Base
• Kamikaze
• Okinawa
• Pacific Theater
• U.S. Tenth Army
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Navy
• United States Navy
• USS Evans
• USS Hugh W. Hadley
• World War II

• Image Dimensions: 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.81 x 16.83 cm)

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