Okinawa Declared Secured

THU 21 JUN 1945
Pacific
Okinawa is declared secured 82 days after the initial landings; Japanese air attacks on U.S. ships offshore, however, continue.

Kamikazes damage destroyer escort Halloran (DE-305), 26°00'N, 128°00'E, and sink medium landing ship LSM-59, while she is escorting fleet tug Lipan (ATF-85) and high speed transport Barry (APD-29). Barry (previously damaged by kamikaze on 24 May) and in tow of Lipan, is en route to Ie Shima (see 22 May 1945 and 22 June).* In addition, suicider planes damage seaplane tenders Curtiss (AV-4) and Kenneth Whiting (AV-14), 26°10'N, 127°18'E.

Twenty-seven USAAF B-29s mine the waters off Oura, Senzaki, Nanao, Fushiki and Osaka, Japan.

PB4Y-2s (VPB 118), flying from Okinawa, continue aerial mining of waters of Korean archipelago, sowing mines in waters in channel between Hikin-To, Iion-To, and Gantai-To; one plane encounters antiaircraft fire from Japanese warship in vicinity. Waters north of Roka-To are mined again as well.

Landing craft repair ship Endymion (ARL-9) is damaged by Japanese submarine I 36 north of Truk, 12°41'N, 156°20'E.

Motor minesweeper YMS-335 is damaged by shore battery, Balikpapan, Borneo, 01°18'S, 116°50'E.

Submarine Parche (SS-384) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Hizen Maru, 41°19'N, 141°28'E.

Submarine Piranha (SS-389) damages Japanese merchant cargo ship Shirogane Maru, 39°28'N, 142°10'E.

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*Barry, decommissioned that morning, sailed loaded with empty powder cases, shell cases, ammunition tanks and empty oil drums, being employed to a picket station off Okinawa as a decoy to "absorb several suiciders." The already-damaged submarine chaser PC-1603 was earmarked for the same purpose.