Mortar boat groups

Three mortar boat groups departed on 26 February, and the two that remained reorganized into j-boat units. Thereafter this sort of support gradually decreased until 3 March, by which time all mortar boats had been recalled. During these last days individual LCI(M) s provided direct daylight support to shore battalions designated by the Headquarters Landing Force. 

After execution of Plan Baker these mortar boats fired from fixed positions (Plan Charlie) on enemy positions in the ravines and on reverse slopes of the Labiranan Head Ravine and Catmon Hill area, silencing the Japanese guns which had been plaguing the troops on the beaches. According to one Navy observer, this mission, completed without observation from computed data and fired at distances from 1,000 to 1,900 yards offshore, proved accurate beyond expectations. Later, Group 2 moved back to the transport area, twelve miles to the... 

On 22 January 1945 the fourteen mortar boats left Pearl Harbor for Iwo Jima where they were joined by the LCI (M) s which had seen action at Lingayen Gulf. Four CWS ofiicers from the 189th Chemical Mortar Company accompanied the Pearl Harbor contingent, attached for the operation to the mortar group—five units of six ships each. 

CWS-trained Navy crewmen manned a total of 60 LCI(M) s which supported Tenth Army in the Ryukyus Campaign. Six days before the main assault of Okinawa, two 6-boat mortar groups supported the diversionary effort against Kerama Retto made by the 77th Infantry... 

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