Okinawa. Okinawa, Kamikaze attacks On 9 March 1945, Hobson arrived at Ulithi, the main staging area for the Okinawa Invasion 1,180 mi. away from the objective, where she and eight other members of her squadron engaged in exercises and calibration of their sweeping equipment until the remaining three sweepers arrived on the 12th. On the last day at sea Fitch wrecked her propeller on a reef and had to return to Pearl Harbor. The aircraft carriers departed for Okinawa on 14 March, and the eleven remaining sweeps of MinRon 20 left on the 19th. Given the nature of their task, the minesweepers had to be the first surface vessels at the target area and unlike the carriers, they headed directly to Okinawa, making the voyage in four days. While the four-day journey was uneventful, the two threats the minesweepers faced were Japanese air attacks and the deteriorating weather. Hobson arrived at Okinawa well in advance of the assault troops to sweep the offshore areas, where she was often attacked by Japanese planes. In the early hours of L-Day, she and Emmons were on radar picket duty with Hobson as fire support ship. As the amphibious assault began on 1 April 1945, Hobson also took up patrol duties and provided night illumination during the first critical days of the campaign. As desperate enemy suicide attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, Hobson was called upon on 13 April 1945 to take up a radar picket station where had been sunk in a heavy kamikaze attack the previous night. Hobsons executive officer, Lt. Robert M. Vogel gave this account: On 16 April 1945 at 0500 and 75 miles northwest of Okinawa, fifteen enemy planes spotted Hobson, and two accompanying gunboats and made passes at the ships; however, the attackers were driven off by anti-aircraft fire. At 0853, one of the planes made a suicide run on Pringle but was shot down by gunners on both Hobson and Pringle. Another dived on Pringle at 0920, slamming into the destroyer's bridge, and plowing through the superstructure deck, abaft the base of number one stack. A single 1,000-pound bomb, or two 500-pounders, penetrated the main and superstructure decks and exploded with a violent eruption, buckling the keel and splitting the vessel in two at the forward fire room. Pringle sank in six minutes. Two minutes later, a single-engine aircraft began a suicide run on Hobson from