Task Force 57

The United Kingdom had already been fighting the Germans for over two years when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Dominion garrisons in Malaya, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and elsewhere.

In March, 1945, the last of the great amphibious operations of the War was in the final stages of planning. Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands, was considered part of the Japanese Home Islands. Its proximity to Japan meant that it could not be bypassed.