Tenth United States Army
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tenth United States Army | |
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Tenth Army Shoulder Insignia |
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Active | |
Country | United States |
Branch | Regular Army |
Type | Field Army |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders |
Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. |
The Tenth United States Army was the last army level command established in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and then by Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell when Buckner was killed by enemy fire on Okinawa.
During the Battle of Okinawa, the Tenth Army consisted of XXIV Corps of the U.S. Army and V Amphibious Corps of the U.S. Marine Corps. In all, Tenth Army suffered 65,631 casualties during the campaign, with 34,736 being suffered by XXIV Corps, 26,724 by V 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 Army himself, killed by an enemy shellburst while visiting a forward position.
Okinawa turned out to be the only campaign that Tenth Army would take part in during WWII. It was slated 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.