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. Joseph Stilwell |
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. until he was killed by enemy artillery fire on Okinawa on 18 June 1945. Major General Roy Geiger assumed command and led the Tenth Army until relieved by General Joseph Stilwell on 23 June.
During the Battle of Okinawa, the Tenth Army consisted of XXIV Corps of the U.S. Army and III Amphibious Corps of the U.S. Marine Corps. The Tenth Army included the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine Divisions and the 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions.
In all, Tenth Army suffered 65,631 casualties during the campaign, with 34,736 being suffered by XXIV Corps, 26,724 by III 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 10th Army himself, killed by an enemy shellburst while visiting a forward position. The day after, a second general, Brigadier General Claudius M. Easley, was killed by machine gun fire.
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.