http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/5/22.htm
June 22nd, 1945 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Finisterre launched.
FRANCE: General Joseph Stilwell assumes command of the US Tenth Army, succeeding Buckner who was killed on Okinawa. (Marc James Small)
CHINA: Japanese troops quit Liuchow, setting it on fire before the advancing Chinese.
JAPAN: Okinawa: : The fighting on Okinawa ends. 12,500 US soldiers and Marines are dead. They also show 35,500 wounded. The US navy shows 36 ships sunk with 368 damaged. 763 US aircraft are lost. The Japanese show 120,000 military and 42,000 civilians dead. The US count is 7,830 aircraft and numerous naval vessels, including the battleship Yamato. There are also 10,755 Japanese prisoners taken. This is the first battle in which significant Japanese prisoners are taken.
:The Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, is requested by the Emperor to end the war. The SCDW is known as the Big 6 of the Japanese Cabinet. PM, FM, War Minister, Navy Minister, Army CofS, Navy CofS.
The submarine USS Barb (SS-220) surfaces off Hokkaido Island, Japan and fires twelve 5-inch (127 mm) rockets with 9.6-pound (4.4 kg) warheads at the town of Shari. This is the first ballistic missile launch by a U.S. submarine.
The USAAF’s XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas dispatches 446 B-29s on six missions against targets on South Honshu Island, Japan during the day.
Mission 215: 162 B-29s attack the Kure Naval Arsenal and 12 others hit alternate targets; 72% of the roof area of the arsenal is damaged, the incomplete submarines I-204 and I-352 are destroyed and the escort destroyer HIJMS Nire and the submarine HIJMS RO 67 are damaged. Two B-29s are lost.
Mission 216: 108 B-29s hit the Mitsubishi aircraft plant at Tamashima destroying 135 of 231 machine tools and almost half the roof area; 10 others hit alternate targets; 2 B-29s are lost.
Mission 217: 52 B-29s attack the Kawanishi aircraft plant at Himeji causing great destruction among the buildings and total destruction of machine tools; 4 others hit alternate targets.
Missions 218 and 219: 34 B-29s hit the Mitsubishi and Kawasaki aircraft plants at Kagamigahara and 10 others hit alternate targets; 1 B-29 is lost.
Mission 220: 25 B-29s hit the Kawasaki aircraft factory at Akashi and 1 hits an alternate target.
Consolidated PB4Y-2s of the USN’s Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Eighteen (VPB-118) based at Yonton Airfield, Okinawa continues aerial mining of the waters off Korea.
FORMOSA: One of two B-32s bomb an alcohol plant at Heito, Formosa with 500 pound (227 kg) bombs but the second one misses flak positions with 260-pound (118 kg) frag bombs.
BORNEO: Japanese resistance on Tarakan island comes to an end.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Lindsay departed refit Saint John, New Brunswick for Sydney Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Bittersweet paid off and returned to RN at Aberdeen, Scotland
Corvettes HMCS Brandon and Sorel paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS O’Hare launched.
Submarine USS Menhaden commissioned.
God bless the memory of all of those who fought to conquer Okinawa.
The casualty figures are staggering.
But even more staggering is the contrast between American casualties and Japanese casualties. Not only were ours half of the enemy’s, ours were heavily weighted to the wounded, while almost all of theirs were made up of the dead. Ninety thousand. My God.
The Japs really did believe that such iron will was unconquerable. And against just about anyone but the Americans, they probably would have been correct.
One of the most amazing clashes of iron wills in history.
But our iron was stronger than their iron. And there was a lot more of it.