The ship returned to the island early on 1 April to support the landings; while approaching Okinawa at 04:45, she had to reverse her engines to avoid colliding with a destroyer that inadvertently crossed her bow in the darkness. As she continued to steam to her assigned station, her anti-aircraft gunners spotted an enemy aircraft, which they shot down; shortly thereafter, a group of four more hostile aircraft appeared, one of which "West Virginia"s guns destroyed. By 06:30, the ship had reached her station just from shore and began shelling the beach as the landing craft slowly made their way to the landing zone. The ship remained off the island throughout the day, though ground forces initially encountered little resistance and "West Virginia"s guns were not immediately needed. That evening, however, a wave of kamikazes arrived and at 19:03, one of them crashed into "West Virginia". The plane struck the ship's superstructure just forward of the No. 2 director for the secondary battery. The resulting explosion killed four and wounded seven in one of the 20 mm gun batteries. The aircraft had been carrying a bomb that penetrated to the second deck, though it failed to detonate; it was later defused by the ship's bomb disposal officer.