soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Brad Meyer wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:28:33 -0400, Marvin
> wrote:
>
>> Yau wrote:

> For whom. The PI was _already_ a rear area once the Marianas were
> secured. Staging Oki or Iwo from Ulithi would have been a fairly short
> hop. In fact, that is how it was eventually done.

In part. The part of the armada that I was on left from Leyte.


> The primary reason for taking Oki was, according to the man tasked
> with taking it, was control of the South China Sea.

As son as the fighting ended on Okinawa, the infantry units
were taken off the island, and the building of airstrips
started to support the invasion of Japan.

>
>> The Japanese understood the American strategy, and made
>> accurate forecasts of the next American step.
>

>> The step from the Philippines to Okinawa required the Navy
>> to assemble the largest armada ever, in order to move the
>> troops and supplies that distance.
>
> Only the troops (and only a portion of the Army troops at that). The
> Marines and the Army formations under Nimitz (and the fleet itself)
> staged through Ulithi. The USN had seen the limitations of the PI as a
> stage for further advance against Japan a good decade before.

The troops and their equipment and initial supplies.