BATTLE OF SAIPAN 1944 WWII MARIANA ISLANDS CAMPAIGN PACIFIC THEATER 28734

[Music] following Pearl Harbor the Japanese had swept far into the Pacific occupying Islands as far south as New Guinea that was 1942 thereafter we recaptured them one by one until our next conquest would bring us within striking distance of the Philippines and Japan itself less than 1,600 miles from the Marianas 15 volcanic islands including Guam Rosa Tinian and Saipan Saipan the Marianas administrative center was our first objective to be invaded June 15 1944 on the 22nd of February carrier planes of task force 58 took off for the softening of attacks on Saipan defenses as well as those of Tinian rota and Guam our first wave of planes caught the Japs off-guard it got 70 of their aircraft on the ground [Music] [Music] sporadic attempts of Japanese planes to attack the carriers in warships task force 58 ended in failure because we were ready for them we destroyed no less than 141 plane their entire attacking corks plane after plane was shot down and set ablaze until these costly Adventures of the Japanese air force completely : toward the end of May the 27th Infantry Division in Hawaii was getting ready to sail for Saipan Major General Smith was in command veterans of the Gilbert Islands campaign the men of the 27th knew the enemy some of their buddies had not returned from the Gilberts some would never return from Saipan elsewhere in the Pacific the 2nd and 4th Marine divisions embarked they were to make the first landings on the island by now convoys were nearing Saipan in two more days these men would be crawling through brush and cane fields fighting for every foot of Japanese ground they received their final instructions in Japanese symbols nomenclatures and the islands geography Saipan was the Japs nerve center its capital and largest city was Gareth on the second biggest city Garen Kanoa airfields were at as Leto and Charen Kanoa and a partially completed airstrip at marpie point the population was estimated in 50,000 25,000 civilian 25,000 military our naval barrage blasted away at all Jaffa installations on the success of this barrage depended the fate of our marine division low level air attacks along the shoreline were coordinated with this naval shelling the invasion was on d-day ol 700 hours groups of the 2nd and 4th Marine Division filed in Higgins boats and then alligator awaiting the starting signal assault boats circled around the transports landings were to be made along a line from Charen Kanoa to a Guinea on point by the 2nd and 4th Marines moving in a breast under our naval barrage the boat started recite on the shores at Oh 8 15 hours soon we would know how effective had been the pre-invasion bombardment and how much strength there was left on the island [Music] once on land however we were pinned down for a couple of hours soon we've silenced enough of the enemy fire for more of our pieces to land and by noon we had pushed a mile inland in certain parts of the beachhead gorge evening we were fighting our way further inland and on the following day the 2nd Marine Division extended its beachhead and joined forces with the 4th Marines their Charen Kanoa we were still being showered on the beaches with jeff mortars and shells as we attempted to push our way further inland these were our next objective as Lito siphons main airfield Maj ecn Bay on the East Coast and garepe on the capital on the second day of the invasion the 27th Infantry Division began landing over the blue beaches at Charen Kanoa having landed with little opposition the twenty-seventh set up a command post and establish contact with the marines to coordinate an attack on as Lito our infantry tank teams sweeping towards the airfield were supported by mortar and artillery fire here in the eastern sector resistance was stiffest because the Japs had already withdrawn many troops from the south and for a day of hard fighting across the dangerous exposed ground the army troops captured tastico airfield on d-day plus 3 the hangars and planes were largely in ruin those that were halfway intact were shipped back to the States for study army engineers lost no time in reconstructing the runway thousands of natives and their children caught in the advance of our troops streamed through designated safety zones to the internment camps here together with captured [ __ ] soldiers they were treated as prisoners of war and were given food clothing and medical treatment a large Japanese task force had meanwhile sailed toward Saipan the 5th fleet operating in support of our landings under Admiral Spruance with the japs target our search planes could not locate the enemy force the Japs struck first their planes attacked 300 miles west of Saipan today about Latos captured many were shot down by our own carrier planes and anti-aircraft battery this battle could not have occurred in any previous war it was a naval battle without naval guns in which with aircraft alone two huge fleets were striking at each other at a distance of 300 miles [Music] it was the first major naval engagement since Midway we shot down 353 [ __ ] planes only three of our ships were damaged and though superficially [Music] now it was our turn we search for the Japanese sleep throughout the day and night and finally found it the following afternoon about 670 miles west of Saipan and all-out airstrike was immediately ordered by Admiral mature commander of our carriers it was just before done by the time we reached depleted had already shifted its position escape was now the enemy's only hope after yesterday's battle he just didn't have enough plane we saw a few in the air none on the deck we thanked three [ __ ] carriers and 15 other warships and as our planes returned from their mission the Japanese fleet totally crippled retired towards the Philippines our troops on Saipan having secured as Lito airfield grove eastward towards ma GTN Bay and isolated a large part of the Japanese troops on the southern tip of the island at night on point from there the 27th division moved into reserve meanwhile the 2nd and 4th Marines went up the center of the island toward mount topic Joe which dominates garrison and it's Harbor mile by mile we were taking possession of Saipan called the island of many thieves by the discoverer of the Mariana resistance grew increasingly severe as our forces entered the higher country tank team smashed jet pillboxes in the foothills before the mountains preparing the way for the infantry 1,500 feet high Papa Joe was an excellent vantage point for the jet we had to protect our troops with smoke screens of white phosphorus and then advanced towards the deep wooded slopes which would present yet another major obstacle to flush out the Japs we set fire to the surrounding cane field we progressed steadily once our forces gained the mountain they would be able to control the capital this last stretch was one of the hardest along the mountainside Japs were hidden in limestone caves from which they had to be blasted with dynamite and flamethrowers we reached the mountain summit on June 25th d-day plus 10 now we were in the position to drive for Gareth on our artillery fire to the capital for the first time in this war American troops were assaulting approved Japanese desert it was hit with every weapon at our disposal label gun supplemented the artillery barrage rockets from mobile launchers sought out every possible enemy dugout Thunderbolt from the Arsenal airfield joined in the attack and maybe dive-bombers blackjack batteries and defenses our ground troops were forging ahead this was still the day we had gained mount topic show and set up our artillery observation posts on its peak in a few more hours we would hold a continuous line from coast to coast across the island in ten days a bitter fighting our forces have occupied approximately half of Saipan including the principal airfield a town and a high peak in its center many Japs have been killed though only a handful were captured now on the 14th day the troops were entering the outskirts of the capital this was garrison once the clean tide a tropical town that our bombardment had now reduced to a pile of rubble but behind these shattered buildings were many enemy patrols and we had to fight for the city street by street and house by house after four days is this struggle on the 2nd of July Garret and fell and so had its harbor ton of fog and the florists point seaplane base our casualties were heavy fanatical Japs did not give up easily in the whole campaign more than 11,000 of our men were wounded some of these men were now on their way back to the state there were others of course who would never return the Marine and army troops continued the drive northward pocketing the last of the Japs at Murphy airfield in a Gaza point and Paradise Valley a deep Gulch in the hills north east of Europe and the enemy still resisted violently the terrain was tucked to became more and more difficult to move equipment then on July 7 5000 Japs tried a last suicide counter-attack the largest ever launched in the Pacific it was a costly one for both sides American dead and wounded 1154 of 1500s [ __ ] dead 4311 of 5000 we gave what remained of the enemy a chance to surrender through loudspeakers we announced the ultimatum and held our fire at first no one came then a few 90s and Japanese civilians but hardly any soldiers when the time limit was up we resumed our fire the battle went on against the remaining Japanese most of whom were holed up in well nigh inaccessible caves they didn't have a chance now but they knew that this island was the Gateway not only to Japan but to the Philippines and all japanese-held territory in the western Pacific [Music] after a final bombardment the infantry and tank teams moved in and by July 9th three weeks and three days after d-day the Marines and army troops had stopped all organized resistance general Richardson and Major General Greiner inspected the Fallen city of Gera pan on the 13th of July the last remaining Japs were burned out of their cave hideout here and there we found them stranded on cliff and had to pick them off one by one some Japs surrendered but most preferred death even suicide some tried to escape by swimming hope you got away and so strong was there in Doctrine horror of the Americans that fervent Japanese parents forced their children to swim out into the ocean our men rescued some of these children and together with natives and captured soldiers took them to internment camps and prisoner of war enclosures food stores in mountain caves had not always held up many of these people had been without water for several days the half-starved civilians were given army rations as well as rice which had fallen into our hands earlier in the campaign those who were too young or too feeble to walk were sent to central internment camps elsewhere on the island Japanese prisoners a few who'd surrendered were put to work burying those who hadn't Japanese losses worked for men for 25,000 soldiers and civilians were dead 1500 more soldiers were hunted down and killed in the following weeks the last defenders only weapon had been bayonets mounted on sticks and the sacrifice had gained them nothing our own losses came to one-sixth of the enemy we now had everything to gain [Music] ever since as Leto's capture army engineers and cps had been at work on the new airfield perhaps it was a routine job for engineers but when the last piece of gravel was ruled out by their bulldozers the war in the Pacific entered a new and decisive phase so far every island we had recaptured every swamp and malaria infested spot from Guadalcanal to Kwajalein has been a springboard for the next Highlander but not Saipan when on November 24th 1944 the first super fortresses took off from this Center of the Marianas they could at last head directly for the heart of the empire whose savage grip had leaked so far into the Pacific Saipan was our air springboard for Tokyo this island had given our specific fliers the first chance to strike at the Japanese home from that time on with hundreds of our giant bombers we began the final destruction of a war machine that had once hoped to wipe out our civilization [Music]

Channel: PeriscopeFilm

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Id: 6-XJlJCdsms

Length: 20min 44sec (1244 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020