The Japanese were forced to retreat further north, marking the turning point in the Battle of Saipan. Fighting their way through rugged jungle terrain, Marines finally won control of Mount Tapotchau by the end of June. The Marines dubbed the ridge “Purple Heart Ridge” for the many American casualties sustained there. Soon to be designated “Death Valley,” the area was bordered by a ridge where well-protected, heavily armed Japanese soldiers fired directly down on the approaching Americans. As the battle raged, Smith ordered a contingent of troops to assault Japanese positions by moving across a large, much exposed valley. ![]() In intensive fighting, U.S forces gradually drove the Japanese defense from their nearly impregnable position in the heights. Located at the center of Saipan, Mount Tapotchau is the island’s highest point, rising some 1,550 feet. Death Valley and Purple Heart RidgeĪfter having failed to stop the American landing on Saipan, the Japanese army retreated to Mount Tapotchau, the mountain peak that dominates the island. On June 18, American troops continued to spread out across the island even as their offshore naval protection departed to head off the Japanese Imperial Fleet that had been sent to aid in the defense of Saipan. Army reinforcements and began pushing inland toward Aslito Airfield and Japanese forces in the southern and central parts of the island. The next morning, the troops were joined by U.S. had suffered approximately 2,000 casualties in the process. By the end of the day, some 20,000 troops had established a beachhead on Saipan however, the U.S. Chapin, a Marine on Saipan, described the chaos around him that morning, with its “bodies lying in mangled and grotesque positions blasted and burned out pillboxes the burning wrecks of LVTs … the acrid smell of high explosives the shattered trees and the churned up sand littered with discarded equipment.”ĭespite the heavy resistance they faced, 8,000 Marines managed to reach the shore that first morning. In “Breaching the Marianas: the Battle for Saipan,” author John C. Subsequently, Marines headed straight into exploding bombs and streaming gunfire. Battleships, destroyers and planes had pounded key targets in pre-assault bombardments, but they had missed many gun emplacements along the beach cliffs. transport ships gathered near the southwest shores of Saipan, and Marines began riding toward the beaches in hundreds of amphibious landing vehicles. On the morning of June 15, 1944, a large fleet of U.S. The Landing and First Phase of the Battle However, American intelligence services had greatly underestimated Japanese troop strength on Saipan. forces would quickly move to seize Guam and Tinian. After the invasion of Saipan, according to the plan, U.S. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith (1882-1967) was given a plan of battle and ordered to take the island in three days. ![]() Saipan, which had been under Japanese rule since 1920, had a garrison of approximately 30,000 Japanese troops, according to some accounts, and an important airfield at Aslito. ![]() Army’s new long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers could inflict punishing strikes on Japan’s home islands ahead of an Allied invasion.Īmerican commanders decided to make the first Mariana landing on Saipan, the largest of the Mariana Islands. forces could establish a crucial air base from which the U.S. At Saipan, the island nearest to Japan, U.S. commanders reasoned that taking the main Mariana Islands–Saipan, Tinian and Guam–would cut off Japan from its resource-rich southern empire and clear the way for further advances to Tokyo. They were the first African-American Marines to see combat in World War II. forces stormed the beaches of Saipan on June 15, 1944, 800 African-American Marines unloaded food and ammunition from landing vehicles and delivered the supplies under fire to troops on the beach. ships with 127,000 troops, including 77,000 Marines, had taken the Marshall Islands, and American high command next sought to capture the Mariana Islands, which formed the critical front line for Japan’s defense of its empire.ĭid you know? When U.S. forces involved in the Pacific Campaign invaded Japanese-held islands in the central Pacific Ocean along a path toward Japan.
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