Air Attack near Kerama Retto
While on station off Okinawa, England was attacked by three Japanese dive bombers. ... Her antiaircraft fire set the first of these flaming, but the plane crashed England on her starboard side, just below the bridge. The kamikaze pilot had remembered his instructions to knock out the ship's nerve center and kill as many as possible of her officers. ... With the bomb of the plane exploding just after the crash, England's men began a dangerous race against time, to quench the fires and save their ship, while combat air patrol shot down the two other attackers. ... She was able to make Kerama Retto under tow, with 37 of her men killed or missing and 25 wounded.
