Ww2 april fools day joke

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by vcs-ww2, Mar 28, 2009.

  1. vcs-ww2

    vcs-ww2 WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    It’s almost April the first again. And here’s my timely April Fools Day joke — appropriate for the occasion:


    Perhaps the biggest April Fools Day joke in the history of the world occurred at the beginning of the last major battle of World War Two.

    The setting was the Pacific ocean island of Okinawa. The date was April 1st, 1945 -- also Easter Sunday -- also "April Fools Day".

    It was shortly before 8 o'clock in the morning. The First and Sixth U.S. Marine Divisions and the Army's 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions were circling in their small landing craft off Okinawa's WESTERN beaches waiting for the "GO" signal that would launch one of the largest amphibious invasions of World War Two..

    At the same time Second Division Marines were circling in their small amphibious craft off thesouth-EASTERN beaches –- on the opposite side of the island -- also waiting for the signal.


    Both the eastern and the western beaches had just undergone a terrific shelling by elements of the huge U.S. battle fleet.

    Both beaches had just undergone the final strafing and napalm attacks by over a hundred U.S. aircraft from nearby carriers.

    Both beaches were almost obscured by the resultant dust and smoke from the back-to-back onslaughts.

    And then both invasion forces got the "GO" signal.

    Simultaneously the small craft off both the eastern and western beaches started in for the landings. The LTV's and small amphibious boats approached nearer and nearer under the watchful eyes of thousands of enemy defenders. Closer and closer. And still closer --- until they were almost touching the beaches. Then the two Marine divisions and two Army infantry divisions stormed the western beach. But, at the very last minute, the boats and LTV's carrying the Second Marine Division on the eastern side of the island suddenly turned about and headed back to their mother ships to be re-boarded.

    The south-eastern beach "landing" on that historic April Fool's Day was only a feint. It’s single objective was to keep the enemy’s forces split to counter landings on both sides of their island. This would keep maximum pressure off the American forces actually landing on the western beaches.


    It worked! The Japs were convinced that they were being invaded on both sides of the island. It worked so well, in fact, that the Jap high command on Okinawa reported to the military "biggies" back home in Japan that they had just repulsed a large United States invasion and had inflicted heavy casualties.

    It was an April Fools Day joke that saved a lot of American lives.

    (The Second Marine Division would repeat their exact same landing maneuver the on the eastern beaches the following morning – just to keep the Japs guessing.)

    vcs-ww2
    . – . – .
     
    dbf likes this.
  2. militarycross

    militarycross Very Senior Member

    Neat story. Hadn't heard this before.

    ...-

    cheers
    phil
     
  3. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    Interesting, I hadn't heard of this before either.

    Was it actually an Aprils fools joke though or just coincidental that it fell on that particular date?
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Thanks for sharing VCS-The Pacific theatre I will confess to knowing very little about so its always good to read your posts :)

    Regards
    Andy
     
  5. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    VCS,

    When it achieves the object then it can be classed as an April fools joke regardless.

    A nice story that I had not read before.

    Thanks for sharing it on the forum.
     
  6. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    That'll be 75 years ago today.
     
    Guy Hudson likes this.
  7. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    In WW1 terms would have been called a Chinese attack
     

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