Big Apple (Yeaju-Dake Escarpment, Battle of Okinawa, 1945)

The Battle of Okinawa, in June 1945, was one of the last battles of World War II. A ridge on the Yeaju-Dake Escarpment was dubbed the “Big Apple,” and it was reported in newspapers on June 15, 1945, that the “Big Apple” was taken by the United States forces.
 
“Big Apple” was described, in an Associated Press story in June 15, 1945, as a white cliff dotted with pine trees.
   
       
Wikipedia: Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦, Hepburn: Okinawa-sen), codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March, (L-6) by the 77th Infantry Division. The 98-day battle lasted from 26 March until 2 July 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi (550 km) away.
 
Newspapers.com
15 June 1945, Fresno (CA) Bee, pg. 1, col. 7:
Okinawa Yanks
Seek Knockout
In A Few Days
GUAM, June 15.—(AP)—
(...)
Doughboys of the 96th Division, supported by flame throwing tanks which seared Japanese cave fronts and hill positions, captured Yaeju Peak, the highest promontory of the Yaeju-Dake last ditch defense escarpment, nicknamed Big Apple by the Yanks.
 
The hill overlooks the plateau which is the enemy’s principal defense ground on the southern line. The capture of the peak may breach as completely the last ditch defenses as the capture of Conical Hill opened up the defenses around Shuri.
 
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15 June 1945, Marshfield (WI) News-Herald, pg. 2, col. 5:
OKINAWA JAPS PUT
UP TOUGH BATTLE
Conquest of ‘Big Apple’ Was
Monumental Task for
U.S. Troops
By ROBERT GEIGER
With the 96th Division on Okinawa, June 14—(Delayed)—(AP)—Riflemen and machinegunners, assisted by tanks and dive bombers, today captured the ‘Big Apple,” highest hill of the Yaeju-Dake escarpment, and brought just that much closer the annihilation of the estimated 12,000 Japanese making their last-stand fight on the southern tip of Okinawa.
(...)
Big White Cliff
“Big Apple,” is a white cliff dotted with pine trees about 500 yards from the eastern end of the 2 1/2-mile long escarpment.
 
Newspapers.com
16 June 1945, Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen, pg. 1, col. 7:
Tells of Huge U. S.
Fleet Concentrations
In Okinawa Section
By LEONARD MILLIMAN
(...)
Ninety-sixth division infantrymen drove deeper into the northern front behind tanks and flamethrowers and covered their own guns mounted on Yaeju hill, which the Yanks have renamed “the Big Apple.”
 
Newspapers.com
16 June 1945, Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen, pg. 1, col. 8:
U. S. Big Guns
Resound on
‘Big Apple’
By ROBERT GEIGER
ON THE CREST OF YEAJU HILL, Okinawa, June 15—(Delayed)—(AP)—This is written atop the peak that the 96th division troops call “the Big Apple,” which is reverberating today with the blast of big guns as American artillery fires.
(...)
A mile south of the Big Apple, but not so high, is an outcropping that the troops have dubbed “Last-Stand ridge.” Fighting today is in progress in a pine-dotted plateau between the Big Apple and the ridge.
 
Newspapers.com
22 June 1945, Daily News (New York, NY), pg. 20, col. 2 photo caption:
A Yank doughboy, rifle ready, waits to move up as a flame-throwing tank burns out Japs hiding in holes along the sunken road on bitterly contested Big Apple Ridge, Okinawa.
 
Newspapers.com
29 May 2011, Great Falls (MT) Tribune, Sunday Life sec., pg. 1, col. 2 photo caption:
Retired Buffalo rancher Durl Gibbs shows a picture of the battle to take the “Big Apple,” a ridge on Okinawa, Japan, during World War II.
 
Newspapers.com
26 January 2020, The Montana Standard (Butte, MT), “Obituaries,” pg. A5, col. 3:
Kelly Hong Wong. 95
March 4, 1924-Jan. 18, 2020
(...)
Kelly, individually, was award the Combat Infantry Badge and a Bronze Star, with one oak leaf cluster, for his combat during the battle of The Big Apple (13 June 1945).