Easter 1945, a day never to be forgotten

Firmly entrenched in the cobwebs of my mind is Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. As a 20-year-old U.S. Navy sailor, during World War II, aboard U.S.S. LST 582, our ship participated in the D-Day Invasion, of Okinawa, that island fortress occupied by fanatic Japanese forces. It was the biggest invasion of the Asiatic-Pacific campaign. We called it D-Day, and some historians say it rivaled the well known D-Day Invasion of Normandy in size.

The 582 arrived at dawn with a contingent of 450 battle-hardened U.S. Marines of the U.S. First Marine Division. They had been aboard for a month and were ready to disembark.

As we waited our turn to hit the beach and unload the Marines, Japanese kamikaze planes attacked our ships at the landing site like stinging yellow jackets. We were stationed between the battleship (BB48) West Virginia on the port (left) side and (BB42) Idaho and the (BB43) Tennessee on the starboard (right) side.

There was a huge naval barrage from these big guys to soften up the Japanese defender before the landing. A Japanese plane jettisoned bombs between our ship and the battleship West Virginia. Fortunately he missed, and he and his plane spiraled into the deep six. Within minutes another suicide plane aimed at the battleship Idaho and missed dieseling into Davy-Jones locker of the Pacific.

We were in the Okinawa area until April 14, 1945, acting as a supply ship. We carried 120 drums of 55-gallon high octane aviation fuel and 65 tons of five-inch shells. If a Japanese plane had hit us, we would have been pulverized.

The ammunition was transferred to the Destroyer U.S.S. Laffey DD724 just 12 days before it was hit by six Japanese suicide planes and four high explosive bombs. It was known as the ship that would not die, since it survived the attacks. There were 31 killed and 72 wounded.

Anther never-to-be-forgotten sight occurred on March 24, 1945, on our way to the D-Day invasion of Okinawa. While anchored in Ulithi Harbor in the western Carolinas as part of a huge 1,400 ship invasion armada, we were anchored next to the U.S.S. Aircraft carrier Franklin. It was listing heavily to one side with a gaping hole in its flight deck. It had been hit by bombs, from a Japanese plane.

On March 19, 1945, while launching planes for strikes against airfields in Japan, we suffered a loss of 724 killed and 265 wounded.

Pleasant surprise

That Easter also presented me with a pleasant surprise. It happened on Holy Saturday, March 31, 1945. Our ship was overseas for 18 months and the only ship we ever refueled was on that day. Out of the 1,400 ship convoys, they selected the 582. We refueled the PCS1391, a small patrol craft.

A member of their crew was on the main deck and shouted to me, “Happy Easter Mike!” He was Fritz Lowery, brother of my aunt Angeline Lowery Cachey from Chicago. The last time I had seen him was in 1929, when I was 5. How is that for a serendipitous event?

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.