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Photo Not
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Isaac Leonard Barlar, Jr
( 1922
- 2006 )
• WW
II – U.S.
Army •
Enlistment State: Georgia
Served
in Armored Unit in Pacific Theatre / Beachhead Invasion of Okinawa
Buried:
Lynnwood Cemetery - Giles Co., TN
- G. Grandson of William Henry
Barlow
- Grandson of Alfred Jordan Barlow (Barlar)
- Son of Isaac ‘Leonard’ Barlar
- B: Giles
County, TN.
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Sunday, April 1, 1945
In the
Ryukyu Islands... On Okinawa, American forces
launch Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa.
Two corps of the US
10th Army (General Buckner) land in the area of Hagushi,
in the southwest of the island. US Task Force 51 (Admiral Turner) provides
the 1,200 transports and landing ships with over 450,000 Army and Marine
Corps personnel embarked. The troops landed are from US 3rd Amphibious Corps
(Geiger) with US 6th and 1st Marine Divisions, on the left or northern flank,
and 24th Corps (Hodge) with US 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions, on the right
or southern flank. On land, US forces encounter almost no resistance on the
first day and establish a beachhead three miles deep and nine miles wide. (Okinawa is 70 miles long and a maximum of 10 miles
wide.) Kadena and Yontan
airfields are captured. Japanese forces on the island, consisting of the
130,000 troops of the Japanese 32nd Army (General Ushijima), are entrenched
in concealed positions and caves, mostly to the south of the American landing
area along the Shuri Line. (There are also 450,000
civilians on the island.) At sea, US TF58 and TF54 as well as the British
Pacific Fleet conduct air and naval bombardments. Japanese conventional and
Kamikaze air strikes hit the battleship USS West Virginia, and the
carrier, HMS Indomitable, along with eight other ships.
On the Western Front... The US 1st and 9th Armies link
up at Lippstadt, cutting off the German forces
in the Ruhr which consist of 325,000 men
mostly from German 15th Army and 5th Panzer Army of German Army Group B
(Field Marshal Model). Other elements of US 1st Army capture Paderborn
while US 9th Army units take Hamm.
To the north, forces of British 2nd Army have crossed the Mitteland Canal near Munster
and are advancing to Osnabruck.
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