youtube greatest tank battles battle of france

But Allied submarines spotted the Yamato and alerted the fleet who then launched a crippling air attack. On April 7, Japan’s mighty battleship Yamato was sent to launch a surprise attack on the Fifth Fleet and then annihilate American troops pinned down near the Shuri Line. It was different along the Shuri Line where they had to overcome a series of heavily defended hills loaded with firmly-entrenched Japanese troops. Battleship YamatoĪmerican troops who headed North to the Motobu Peninsula endured intense resistance and over 1,000 casualties but won a decisive battle relatively quickly.

Japanese troops had been instructed not to fire on the American landing forces but instead watch and wait for them, mostly in Shuri, a rugged area of southern Okinawa where General Ushijima had set up a triangle of defensive positions known as the Shuri Defense Line. What they didn’t know was the Japanese Imperial Army had them just where they wanted them.

The military force also included an unknown number of conscripted civilians and unarmed Home Guards known as Boeitai.Īs they moved inland, American troops wondered when and where they’d finally encounter enemy resistance. Japan’s 32nd Army, some 130,000 men strong and commanded by Lt. The troops quickly secured both Kadena and Yontan airfields. Wave after wave of troops, tanks, ammunition and supplies went ashore almost effortlessly within hours.

On D-Day along the shores of northern France, American troops fought hard for every inch of beachhead-but troops landing on Okinawa’s beaches surged inland with little resistance. But the Fifth Fleet’s offensive onslaught was almost pointless and landing troops could have literally swum to shore-surprisingly, the expected mass of awaiting Japanese troops wasn’t there. Soldiers and Army brass alike expected the beach landings to be a massacre worse than D-Day. As dawn arrived on April 1, morale was low among American troops as the Fifth Fleet launched the largest bombardment ever to support a troop landing to soften Japanese defenses.

Youtube greatest tank battles battle of france