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Larry Wiliams-Family
to remember
Williams, Edward Leo (Scrapper), Sgt.
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Contact Info
Last Address Anderson
Date of Passing Jun 06, 1991
Location of Interment Anderson Cemetery - Anderson, Alabama
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Funeral services for Edward Leo "Scrapper" Williams, 69, of Anderson will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Elkins East Chapel with Rev. Mark Stokes and Rev. Lloyd Gibbs officiating. Burial will be in Anderson Cemetery. He died on June 6, 1991 at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital. He was a lifelong resident of Lauderdale County. He was retired from Diamond Shamrock and an Army veteran of World War II. He is survived by his wife, Betty Jean (Myrick) Williams; his sons, John Edward Williams and Joseph Martin Williams, both of Anderson; his daughters, Donna Grisham and Susan Cosby, both of Rogersville; his sister, Robbie Lois Robbins of Muscle Shoals; and five grandchildren.
Ryukyus Campaign (1945)/Battle of Okinawa
From Month/Year
April / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bufū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
