Whoa: Correction!

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 09:55 PM 4/21/2001 EDT, DasHaas@aol.com wrote:
>      Here's a little World War II story to warm your cockles: The planned  
>amphibious invasion of Japan in 1945 was code-named "Operation Olympic."
The  
>2nd Marine Division was given the "honor" of spearheading the first
landings,  
>an attack that would include a total of 36 divisions 

The overall invasion of Japan was DOWNFALL.  OLYMPIC (originally, MAJESTIC)
was the invasion of Kyushu and was set for 1 NOV 45;  CORONET, planned for
1 MAR 46, was the invasion of Honshu.  OLYMPIC would have involved 4 Corps
with 12 divisions, 3 Marine and 9 Army, with one of the Army Corps and
three of the Army divisions being reserve units, and two more Army
divisions being feint and follow-on units.  The V Amphib Corps -- including
the 2nd MARDIV -- was to land at Kushikino and to push inland to conquer
Sendai and Kagoshima.  Heavy casualties were expected but I have never
heard that anyone thought the 2nd MARDIV would cease to exist after the
second day.  (The 2nd MARDIV had already "ceased to exist", if you will,
during the Second World War, having suffered 12,770 casualties.)  Nor would
the 2nd MARDIV have "spearheaded" OLYMPIC:  the 40th ID was to make
preliminary landings on outlying islands on X-3.  In any event, V Amphib
Corps was intended to land its three divisions simultaneously, while XI
Corps landed its three Army divisions simultaneously to the east, and I
Corps landed ITS three divisions at the same time on the right of the line.
 So, the 40th ID would go in first, then three Corps would land nine
divisions simultaneously on three beaches.

CORONET, incidentally, was to consist of two field Armies with five Corps,
nine ID's, three MARDIVS, and 2 armored divisons, for a total of 14
divisions, and an additional ID and three British Imperial divisions in
reserve.  2 MARDIV's, six ID's and both armored divisions were to attack on
Y-Day, with another MARDIV and three ID's coming in on Y+5.  Follow-on
forces included 12 ID's and two more British Imperial units.  Thus, the
grand total of all divisions, direct and follow-up, for both landings over
a seven-month window would have been 46 divisions.  After Y+40, the Army
planned on inserting four more ID's per month, with the Fourth Army under
Sandy Patch coming into the theater during the summer of 1946 to supplement
the 1st, 6th, and 8th Armies already in combat.

See Allen and Polmar, CODE-NAME DOWNFALL or Richard B Frank's DOWNFALL for
discussion.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!