Tenth United States Army | |
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![]() Tenth Army Shoulder Insignia | |
Active | 20 June 1944 [1] – 15 October 1945 |
Country | ![]() |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch | Regular Army |
Type | Field army |
Garrison/HQ | Fort Sam Houston, Texas [1] |
Engagements | Battle of Okinawa |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. Roy Geiger (USMC) Joseph Stilwell Oliver P. Smith |
Insignia | |
Flag | ![]() |
The Tenth United States Army was the last army level command established during the Pacific War during World War II, and included divisions from both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps.
The headquarters of the Tenth Army was formed in June 1944 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with the original intent of being the headquarters element for the land forces of the planned invasion of Taiwan. Following a conference at Pearl Harbor in July between President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur, it was decided to invade the Philippines instead of Taiwan. As a result, the Tenth Army did not have an operational assignment until the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945.
The Tenth Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. from its activation on 20 June 1944 until he was killed by enemy artillery fire on Okinawa on 18 June 1945. [2] Major General Roy Geiger, USMC assumed temporary command, becoming the first Marine Corps general to ever command a field army, [3] and led the Tenth Army until relieved by General Joseph Stilwell on 23 June. Stilwell commanded the Tenth Army until it was disbanded on 15 October 1945.
During the Battle of Okinawa (1 April through 22 June 1945), the Tenth Army consisted of XXIV Corps of the U.S. Army (consisting of the 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Army infantry divisions) and III Amphibious Corps of the U.S. Marine Corps (consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine divisions). The Tenth Army was unique among field armies in that it had its own Tactical Air Force, Tenth Army, a joint Army-Marine formation. [1]
The Army had over 102,000 soldiers (of these 38,000+ were non-divisional artillery, combat support and HQ troops, with another 9,000 service troops), [1] over 88,000 Marines and 18,000 Navy personnel (mostly Seabee and medical personnel). [1] At the start of Battle of Okinawa, Tenth Army had 182,821 men under its command. [1]
In all, Tenth Army suffered 65,631 casualties during the campaign, with 34,736 being suffered by XXIV Corps, 26,724 by III Amphibious Corps, 520 to the tactical air force attached to Tenth Army, 2,636 to the Army garrison forces of Okinawa and Ie Shima, and 1,015 to troops directly under the command of Tenth Army. As noted earlier, one of those casualties was the commander of the Tenth Army himself, killed by an enemy shell burst while visiting a forward position. The day after, a second general, Brigadier General Claudius M. Easley, was killed by machine gun fire. [4] General Joseph Stilwell was selected to succeed General Buckner as commander of the Tenth Army.
Okinawa turned out to be the only campaign that Tenth Army would take part in during World War II. It was earmarked to take part in Operation Coronet, the second phase of the invasion of Japan, but the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and subsequent Japanese surrender, obviated the need to invade Japan. The Tenth Army was disbanded on 15 October 1945.
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II by the US military, was fought between the United States and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of World War II, from September 15 to November 27, 1944, on the island of Peleliu.
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March, (L-6) by the 77th Infantry Division. The 82-day battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 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.
Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. was a lieutenant general in the United States Army during World War II who served in the Pacific Theater. As commanding general of Alaska Defense Command, Buckner commanded American-Canadian forces in the Aleutian Islands campaign, including the Battle of Attu and the Kiska Expedition. Following that assignment, he was promoted to command the Tenth Army, which conducted the amphibious invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa in 1945. He was killed during the closing days of the Battle of Okinawa by enemy artillery fire, making him the highest-ranking United States military officer lost to enemy fire during World War II.
General Roy Stanley Geiger was a United States Marine Corps four-star general who served in World War I and World War II. In World War II, he became the first Marine Corps general to lead a field army.
Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB was a general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare. His nickname, "Howlin' Mad" Smith, had been given to him by his troops in the Dominican Republic in 1916.
The Battle of Guam was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Mariana Islands captured by the Japanese from the United States in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The battle was a critical component of Operation Forager. The recapture of Guam and the broader Mariana and Palau Islands campaign resulted in the destruction of much of Japan's naval air power at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and allowed the United States to establish large airbases from which it could bomb the Japanese home islands with its new strategic bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler is a United States Marine Corps base located in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. It was named after Marine Corps Major General and twice Medal of Honor recipient Smedley D. Butler.
The Direct Air Support Center (DASC) is the principal United States Marine Corps aviation command and control system and the air control agency responsible for the direction of air operations directly supporting ground forces. It functions in a decentralized mode of operation, but is directly supervised by the Marine Tactical Air Command Center (TACC) or the Navy Tactical Air Control Center (NTACC). During amphibious or expeditionary operations, the DASC is normally the first Marine Air Command and Control System (MACCS) agency ashore and is usually categorized as the Ground Combat Element's (GCE's) senior Fire Support Coordination Center (FSCC). The DASC's parent unit is the Marine Air Support Squadron (MASS) of the Marine Air Control Group (MACG).
XXIV Corps was a U.S. Army Corps-level command during World War II and the Vietnam War.
Sergeant Alejandro Renteria Ruiz was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration, for his actions in the Battle of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands during World War II.
Oscar Woolverton Griswold was a United States Army lieutenant general in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his command of the XIV Corps in the South Pacific Area and South West Pacific Area during World War II.
Francis Patrick Mulcahy was a general and commander in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. Mulcahy commanded the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, the Cactus Air Force, and the Tactical Air Force, Tenth Army.
The Scout and Sniper Company of 6th Marine Division was the division reconnaissance asset for the regimental commanders. It was created by former Marine Raider Major Anthony "Cold Steel" Walker to form a scout company from Company H from out of one of the regiments of 6th Marine Division. The Scout Company deactivated, along with 6th Marine Division, after the end of World War II.
Clarence Rodney Wallace was a decorated officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of brigadier general. He is most noted for his service as commanding officer of the 8th Marine Regiment during World War II.
The American invasion of the island of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, took place 1 April 1945. The Japanese military was determined to inflate a casualty rate so high that the U.S. government would choose not to invade the Japanese home islands. To this end, the southern portion of the island had been covered with the most extensive system of fortifications and fields of fire yet encountered in the Pacific War.
On 21 July 1944, United States Marine and Army forces invaded the island of Guam, the southernmost of the Mariana Islands chain in the Central Pacific, with the intent to take control of the island from the Imperial Japanese Army. Operation Forager II, as it was called by American planners, was a phase of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
The Tactical Air Force, Tenth Army (TAF) was a joint aviation command of the Tenth United States Army that was responsible for commanding all land-based aviation and aviation command and control units during the Battle of Okinawa. The TAF's headquarters was provided by the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and it was the largest joint aviation unit under Marine Corps command during World War II. During the battle, the TAF was commanded by Major General Francis P. Mulcahy until ill-health forced him to be relieved by MajGen Louis E. Woods. According to United States sources, TAF aircraft were responsible for shooting down 637 Japanese aircraft during the battle.
Major General James Lester Bradley was a United States Army officer who commanded the 96th Infantry Division throughout its existence in World War II.
Naval Base Okinawa, now Naval Facility Okinawa, was and is a number of bases built after the Battle of Okinawa by United States Navy on the Okinawa Island of Japan. The naval bases were built to support the landings on Okinawa on April 1, 1945, and the troops fighting on Okinawa. The Navy repaired and did expansion of the airfields on Okinawa. United States Navy Seabee built or repaired the facilities on the island. The bases on Okinawa put the United States Armed Forces only 350 miles from Japan's home islands. Most facilities closed after the war, but some are still in use today in all branches of the United States Armed Forces.
On 15 September 1944, United States Marine Corps forces landed on the southwestern shore of the island of Peleliu in the Palau island chain, 470 nautical miles due east of the Philippine island of Mindanao. This action, called Operation Stalemate II by American planners, was a phase in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Whether possession of the island was necessary for the Allied cause has been the source of much controversy.