Operation Coronet
Invasion Information
Casualties
Coronet Facts
Coronet Maps
Books
1945
Burning Mountain
Codename Downfall
Death Is Lighter Than a Feather
Downfall
MacArthur's War
The Invasion of Japan
| Our Other Military Sites |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |
| Operation Coronet |
Operation Coronet
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Operation Coronet was planned as a follow-up to Operation Olympic, which was the planned invasion of Kyushu, the southern-most Japanese island. Operation Olympic was scheduled for November 1945.
Neither Operation Olympic nor Operation Olympic, ever took place because Japan surrendered in August 1945, immediately following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the USSR's declaration of war on Japan and invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria.
It is very hard to estimate how many casualties (both Allied and Japanese) would have occurred had Operation Coronet gone ahead. A number of authorities have produced casualty estimates for Operation Olympic, or for Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet together (Downfall), but few have produced separate estimates for Operation Coronet alone. The only serious separate Operation Coronet casualty estimates that I am aware of, is one produced by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in April 1945. They estimated, in Operation Coronet that the US would suffer 744,000 wounded, and 158,000 dead - but did not speculate as to Japanese casualties. All that can be said for certain, is that both Operation Olympic, and Operation Coronet, had they gone ahead, would have been very costly in terms of both Allied and casualties, and in retrospect it is very fortunate that they did not proceed.
