The Free Lance-Star (June 30, 1944)
Half of Saipan in U.S. hands
Invading forces push on to wrest island from Japanese garrison
USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Bearded Yanks, after crushing the last organized Japanese resistance on the south half of Saipan, battled north step by step today while enemy broadcasts hinted of new U.S. battleship and aerial attacks on Guam, Tinian and Rota.
Seven hundred miles southwest of the Marianas invasion scene, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s bombers supported the Saipan operation by dealing the Nipponese air base of yap its fifth blow in a week during which more than 50 Jap planes have been destroyed – better than one every two hours – by U.S. airmen since Pearl Harbor was attacked. U.S. losses were 2,276 planes.
On Saipan, a pocket of Japanese which had been holding out on the southeast tip since the invasion began June 14 was overwhelmed Tuesday, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz in a communiqué Thursday.
Six miles up the west coast, cautious Yanks probed deeper into shell-shattered Garapan, administrative center of the Marianas. In the mountainous center of the island, other small gains were made.
The communiqué said:
Our advance northward is being made against severe resistance.
The Yanks underwent another night air attack, during which anti-aircraft guns shot down two raiders.