Battle of Saipan (1944)

52

Worden: Saipan battle like movie when seen from hilltop

By William L. Worden

Mount Tapochau, Saipan, Mariana Islands (AP via Navy radio) – (July 1, delayed)
From this mountain, the battle for Saipan, grinding into its third week, is like watching war on a vast movie screen.

Tanks lead painfully slow infantry assaults on the few remaining pockets of resistance south of the east-west line at Garapan’s southern edge.

Looking down today, it is possible to see on the island’s eastern shore the whole battle in miniature, with points of the American attack pushing northward through groves, across fields and around the shoulders of craggy hills.

Below the mountain top, Marines and soldier bivouac in a shelter of ruined barns and set up command posts behind rocks. They move solely across open spaces behind such concentrations of artillery fire as already have driven the Japanese from defense positions in more than half the island.

To look down on the battle is an awesome and at the same time a disappointing experience. You can see Americans everywhere below. You see some of them fall and not get up. You see bursts of shells and watch them tear down houses and barns. You see spurts from flamethrowers run along the ground searching trees and enemy soldiers. You see wounded coming back in laboring ambulances.

Behind you in the hills, artillery rattles and slams and shells whisper overhead.

Now and then, you can see civilians riding in trucks or walking.

But two things are missing to make the scene complete. The first is the odor of death. This makes it all the more like viewing motion pictures of war.

The second missing factor is live Japs. Enemy guns now and then answer our artillery. One knocks out a jeep on the road just below us with a single salvo. Another works up and down the highway hunting but not finding the huge vehicle park we can clearly see.

Others work in the woods against flamethrowers. Machine guns answer tanks, grenades meet foot soldiers but no Jap shows his head. In all-day watching by a half a dozen correspondents only two reporters saw any Japs at all those were running from an American charge up a hill.

With glasses, it is possible now and then to see a Japanese vehicle far to the rear.

Our casualties are high and the movement forward and below is bitterly slow. But from the mountain top, it seems to be war on a movie screen.

53

U.S. Navy Department (July 4, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 71

Garapan and Tanapag Towns on Saipan Island have been captured by our forces in a general advance along the entire front. Our line now extends inland from Tanapag on the west coast of the island, skirts the mountain village of Atchugau in the center, and is anchored on the east coast at a point within four miles of Inagsa Point at the northeast tip of Saipan. During the night of July 2‑3 (West Longitude Date), a small force of Japanese attacked our lines from the rear. Twenty‑five enemy troops were killed. We suffered no losses. Our troops have buried 7,312 enemy dead.

Carrier aircraft of a fast carrier task group attacked Iwo Jima Island on July 2 (West Longitude Date). Thirty‑nine enemy fighters which attempted to intercept our force were shot down, and 16 were probably shot down. Incomplete reports indicate 24 enemy aircraft were destroyed or damaged on the ground. Two small vessels were strafed, and bomb hits were obtained on a fuel dump.

Rota Island was bombed by carrier aircraft and shelled by light naval surface units on July 2. Runways and revetments were hit. A huge explosion was caused by a hit apparently in an ammunition dump.

Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force bombed Truk Atoll during daylight on July 1 and at night on July 2. In the attack on July 1, seven enemy fighters intercepted our force. Four enemy aircraft and two Liberators were damaged. All our planes returned. No effective opposition was encountered on July 2. Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked enemy positions in the Marshall Islands on July 1 and 2.

54

The Evening Star (July 4, 1944)

U.S. troops invade Noemfoor and seize principal airfield

Landing represents 100-mile advance toward Philippines

Double threat to Philippines

sn83045462 1944-07-04 1 4 image 681x648 from 857x100 to 3422x2543
Solid arrows point to Noemfoor Island, off New Guinea, and Saipan, in the Marianas, where U.S. troops are fighting for strategic bases. The landing on Noemfoor was announced last night. Open arrows with distance indicators show how these advances form a double threat to the Jap-held Philippines. (AP)

Advanced Allied HQ, New Guinea (AP) –
U.S. troops have invaded Noemfoor Island off Dutch New Guinea and seized its principal airdrome in a 100-mile swoop toward the Philippines.

Headquarters announced today that units of the 6th Army, under Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, landed on Noemfoor’s western coast at 8:00 a.m. Sunday.

Within two hours, the green-clad infantrymen overcame light enemy opposition and captured Kamiri Airstrip, a 5,000-foot landing field badly cratered by Allied bombs. The troops found 30 Japanese airplanes there, most of them damaged beyond repair.

At last reports, the invaders were pushing toward the island’s two remaining airdromes, one of them three miles away.

Murlin Spencer, Associated Press correspondent, said U.S. casualties were among the smallest suffered in any landing operation in the Southwest Pacific. Only 45 Japanese dead were counted in the first few hours of fighting.

Noemfoor is 1,400 miles southwest of the Marianas, where other U.S. soldiers and two divisions of Marines have taken almost two-thirds of Saipan Island and have killed more than 6,000 Japanese at a cost of more than 2,200 American dead or missing – the heaviest casualties of the Pacific War.

The Americans have surrounded Saipan’s principal city, Garapan, on three sides, and have squeezed the remaining Japanese defenders into the narrow northern end of the island.

There was no Pearl Harbor communiqué for the 24-hour period of July 3, Honolulu Time, indicating that the situation on Saipan had not changed considerably.

Gen, Douglas MacArthur, in an Independence Day communiqué referring to the Noemfoor operation, said:

Our forces landed with practically no loss, either ground, naval or air, and promptly secured the airfield, our main objective, without a struggle.

The seizure of this base will give added breadth and depth to our air deployment and will further dislocate the enemy’s South Seas defenses already seriously shaken by our previous advances.

Noemfoor, 100 miles west of the U.S.-occupied Schouten Islands where two airfields are already in operation, is only 50 miles from Manokwari, strongest remaining Japanese base in Dutch New Guinea. Guarding the entrance to Geelvink Bay, it is closer to the Philippines than either to Darwin, Australia, or Port Moresby, New Guinea. Timor, Celebes, Davao, Yap and Palau are all less than 1,000 miles away.

A dispatch filed yesterday from the flagship said that with the 2nd Marines holding the surrounding hills and advancing steadily in the center and northern part of the city, the fall of Garapan is imminent.

In the face of an American thrust, Japanese troops were declared rapidly abandoning the city and fleeing northward. Thousands of Japanese civilians preceded the troops in flight out of the battered and bombed city which was a mass of ruins.

The 27th Infantry Division pushed forward, bringing itself nearly parallel to more advanced positions of the 4th Marines who have made big strides along the eastern coast.

Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters also announced the capture last Friday of Maffin Bay airdrome on the Dutch New Guinea mainland 250 miles east of Noemfoor. Nearby Wake Island airstrip has been in Allied hands for six weeks. The Japanese still hold Sawar Drome near the Maffin Strip, but Allied planes have denied them the use of it.

New raids on Jap bases

New raids on Manokwari, Timor, Palau, Yap, Wewak, Rabaul, Havieng and other Japanese bases in the Southwest Pacific were listed in Gen. MacArthur’s communiqué.

The Noemfoor landing, Gen. MacArthur said, was made “through narrow, difficult coral reefs generally regarded as impractical for such a purpose. As a result, the attack was completely unexpected by the enemy and his defense preparations were outflanked.”

Cruisers and destroyers under the command of RAdm. William F. Fechteler started shelling Noemfoor’s west coast before dawn. Fighters and bombers of the Far Eastern Air Force joined the pre-invasion attack.

There was some Japanese mortar, and artillery fire at first, and enemy anti-aircraft guns were leveled briefly against the warship. By 10:00 a.m., all enemy mortar and artillery fire had been silenced.

Kamiri Drome had been captured, and the push to the other airfields was on.

55

U.S. Navy Department (July 5, 1944)

Remarks by Secretary of the Navy at Press Conference

For Immediate Release
July 5, 1944

You have the news review for this week. I would like to make these further observations:

The Navy’s desire is to present the news of the war so far as naval action is concerned as realistically as is humanly possible. It is desired that news be angled neither optimistically nor pessimistically; any such attempt carries the implication that the people of the country are not able to place proper evaluation upon events of the war. The Navy does not believe that to be the case.

At the conclusion of a recital of news such as has been related today, I am always struck by the fact that the net impression left is a distinctly favorable one; the cumulative effect of such impressions cannot but lead subconsciously to the conclusion that the war is relatively close to being over.

That is not the case. I am saying that as much to myself as to you. What is happening now is that, logistically speaking, we are getting close to the place where we can force the enemy in the Pacific to stand up and fight; but I have no illusions but that the fighting which the enemy will do when he is cornered will be bitter and costly. In battering down the outer rim of Japanese defenses we have been successful, and that work has gone at a somewhat faster pace than had been hoped for. The main battles, however, which will be necessary before Japanese power can be destroyed are still to come. It is likely that these final battles will occur on land, and that means the application of infantry power with all of the accompanying elements of assault over vast areas.

The war in the Pacific goes well, but it is a long war.

56

The Free Lance-Star (July 5, 1944)

U.S. warships and planes blast Jap bases on Fourth

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Guns of U.S. warships and rockets of carrier planes shattered Japanese bases on the Fourth of July 700 miles south of Tokyo.

Saipan, on the invasion route to Japan, is seven-eighths in the hands of still advancing U.S. Marines and soldiers.

Noemfoor, on the invasion route to the Philippines, is falling in a lightning operation to infantrymen, reinforced by paratroopers.

The latest task force thrust toward Nippon, aimed at the Volcano (Kazan) and Bonin Islands, resulting in the sinking or beaching of three Jap destroyers, the sinking of two other ships and the destruction in sky battles of 64-80 planes at a cost of nine U.S. carrier aircraft.

These fast-breaking developments along a Western Pacific war front of more than 2,000 miles – from the Bonins to Dutch New Guinea’s Geelvink Bay – were reported in a series of communiqués last night and today.

Reports Guam attack

Tokyo radio added to the flaming action the unconfirmed report that carrier-based U.S. planes raided Guam, south of Saipan, Monday.

The enemy air base of Rota, between Guam and Saipan, was shelled by warships and bombed by carrier planes Sunday.

The Volcano-Bonin attack was a two-day operation which raised to 36 the number of Nipponese ships sunk and to 826 the total of enemy planes destroyed since the Western Pacific offensive opened June 10. U.S. losses for the same period were listed as 160 planes – and four warships damaged, but none sunk.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said the Fourth of July attack also left an enemy destroyer dead in the water and burning, damaged several small cargo ships and set fire to harbor installations and warehouses.

Carrier planes opened the operation the day before, blasting Iwo Jima in the Volcano group, shooting down 39 interceptors for certain, probably bagging 16 more and destroying or damaging 24 on the ground. Three raiders were lost.

Second day’s blow

On the second day, cruisers and destroyers moved in to shell Iwo Jima while rocket-firing planes attacked both it and Hahajima in the Bonins. In that attack, 25 enemy planes were downed and six raiders were lost.

On Saipan, invaded June 14, Marine heroes of Tarawa and the Marshalls and infantry veterans of Central Pacific invasions left the worst terrain behind them as they squeezed the Japanese into the northeast corner. More than 7,000 of the enemy have been slain.

In the Southwest Pacific, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s 6th Army troops which quickly won an airfield on Noemfoor opened a powerhouse push Monday toward a second drome, backed by reinforcements parachuted to the beachhead.

57

Völkischer Beobachter (July 6, 1944)

Der Lage im Pazifik

Tokio, 5. Juli –
Wie das Kaiserlich japanische Hauptquartier zur Gefechtslage auf Saipan meldet, sind die an Zahl weit überlegenen feindlichen Truppen unter Einsatz von Flugzeugen und Schiffsgeschützen mit zahlreichen Panzern in die japanischen Stellungen auf dem nordöstlichen Teil der Insel eingebrochen. Es finden gegenwärtig heftige Kämpfe statt.

Starke feindliche Bomberverbände griffen die 2.000 Kilometer von Tokio entfernt liegenden Ogasawara-(Bonin)-Inseln an. Die Angriffe, die sich vor allem gegen die Inseln Tschitschijima und Iwojima richteten, wurden von Flugzeugen der in der Nähe kreuzenden feindlichen Flugzeugträger ausgeführt. 18 Bomber wurden mit Bestimmtheit abgeschossen.

An dem Angriff gegen die Insel Tschitschijima beteiligten sich auch feindliche Kreuzer und Zerstörer. Schwere Kämpfe mit den Kriegsschiffen sind noch im Gange.

58

U.S. Navy Department (July 6, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 73

Reports from a fast carrier task group which attacked Chichijima in the Bonin Islands on July 3 (West Longitude Date) and participated in the attack on Hahajima the same day indicate the following additional damage to the enemy.

A group of several enemy ships located 80 miles northwest of Chichijima was attacked, resulting in the sinking of two destroyer escort type vessels and damage to a medium cargo ship. At Chichijima, the following results were obtained:

One small oiler, one medium ammunition ship and one medium cargo ship, sunk. One minelayer, one trawler and four luggers probably sunk. One large cargo ship, three medium cargo ships, one small cargo ship, two small oilers, one minelayer and one destroyer damaged. Several were beached.

At Hahajima, two small cargo ships and nine luggers were damaged. Buildings and defense installations were bombed at both objectives. Nine enemy aircraft were shot down, and three were damaged on the ground. In these strikes, we lost five pilots and four aircrewmen from seven of our aircraft which failed to return.

Pagan Island in the Marianas was attacked by carrier aircraft on July 4 (West Longitude Date). The runway at the airfield and adjacent buildings were bombed and strafed.

Barracks and supply facilities at Guam Island were bombed by carrier aircraft on July 4, starting large fires. We lost one plane from intense anti­-aircraft fire.

Search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Group One, bombed gun positions at Marpi Point on Saipan Island on July 4, strafed the airfields at Tinian Island and bombed defense installations.

Forty tons of bombs were dropped on Truk Atoll by 7th Army Air Force Liberators on July 4, hitting anti-aircraft positions and objectives near the airfield. Five enemy aircraft were in the air but did not attempt to intercept our force. Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers on the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing continued to neutralize enemy positions in the Marshalls on July 4.

59

The Free Lance-Star (July 6, 1944)

Enemy on Saipan make final stand

Nimitz: We’re moving westward rapidly as possible

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Impending slaughter of Japanese, massed body to body for a last-ditch stand on Saipan, and the swift seizure of a second enemy airfield 800 miles southeast of the Philippines added emphasis today to a highly significant prediction by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz.

“What we learn on Saipan we will use in assault on other Japanese positions,” he said at a press conference in which he pointed out that Saipan’s larger land mass afforded valuable lessons of future operations.

The admiral assured:

We are moving westward across the Pacific as rapidly as we can. And we continued to view the future with confidence.

Howard Handleman, representing the combined Allied press, reported today from aboard a flagship off Saipan that thousands of Japs, squeezed into the northeastern eighth of the island, awaited the inevitable.

He said:

The Japs, resigned to death and defeat, lay body to body in caves and pillboxes for a final, frantic gesture against Americans they know they can’t halt.

Massed with them were many of the island’s 25,000 Japanese civilians, whose role in the bloody showdown was a source of conjecture.

At Noemfoor in Dutch New Guinea’s Geelvink Bay, where Southwest Pacific ground forces are 1,000 miles closer to the Philippines than they were a year ago, the capture of Kornasoren Airfield was announced today by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Paratroops, dropped in force on two successive days, helped win it on the Fourth of July. On Sunday, 6th Army troops opened the invasion of Noemfoor, investing Kamiri Airfield in the first hours. Kornasoren’s advantage over Kamiri is that it can be enlarged into a heavy bomber base from which the Philippines can be pounded.

60

U.S. Navy Department (July 7, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 74

Our ground forces on Saipan have continued advancing against strong opposition. On the eastern side of the island our line has reached a point less than two miles from Inagsa Point on the northeast tip of Saipan, and extends laterally across the island to a western anchor slightly more than four miles from Marpi Point on the northwest tip. A force of approximately 200 of the enemy attempted to evacuate from the northwest coast of Saipan in barges on the night of July 4‑5 (West Longitude Date). The formation was broken up by artillery fire. Our troops have buried 8,914 enemy dead.

Aircraft of our fast carrier task force attacked Guam and Rota on July 5 and 6 (West Longitude Date). Airstrips and other ground installations were worked over with bombs, rockets, and machine-gun fire. At Rota one enemy plane was destroyed on the ground, and two were damaged. There was no enemy interception at either objective. We lost two fighters. The pilot of one was rescued.

During July 5, 7th Army Air Force Liberators attacked Moen, in the Truk group, with 30 tons of bombs. On the same day Corsairs and Dauntless dive bombers of Group One, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked Wotje, Jaluit, and Taroa in the Marshall Islands. We lost no planes.

61

The Pittsburgh Press (July 7, 1944)

10,000 Jap civilians warned to surrender to Yanks on Saipan

Enemy remnants bottled up by Americans on northern tip of Marianas Island
By Rembert James, representing combined Allied press

Aboard joint expeditionary force flagship off Saipan (UP) –
U.S. military commanders today designated a road to surrender for the 10,000 to 15,00 civilians still hiding out on Saipan Island, while the victorious Yanks surged forward to deliver the death blow to the battered Jap garrison bottled up at the northern tip of the island.

A single highway was designated as the road to surrender for civilians, almost 7,000 of whom have already been interned.

The rest, including Saipan business owners, insular government officials and white-collar workers with their families, have cowered in hiding places in the hills and canebrakes on northern Saipan.

Pamphlets dropped

By word of mouth, and by pamphlets dropped from airplanes and shot from mortars, the Americans offered water, food and complete safety to those who accept.

Meanwhile, Marines and Army forces pushed in to destroy the remnants of the defending forces under circumstances in which no one could doubt that the end of military operations was in sight.

The Japs were penned into a space extending roughly two miles in each direction except for a slim area from Marpi Point at the northern end down the western coast toward Tanapag Harbor.

Hold only airfield

The Japs had already lost everything of value on Saipan except the Marpi Point airfield, where most of their troops have apparently chosen to die at the base of a sheer cliff 600 feet high.

They still held an entrenched pocket on the west coast, but were under heavy attack by the Army’s 27th Infantry Division troops there, while Marines pushed on northward.

The Americans on the other hand held approximately nine-tenths of the island, including the important Isely Airport (formerly Aslito), the town of Garapan and the harbor of Tanapag, as well as the island’s highest peak – Mt. Tapochau.

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‘Gung Ho’ Raider chief wounded in Saipan battle

Col. Carlson hit while aiding Marine
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

With U.S. Marines, Saipan, Mariana Islands – (July 23, delayed)
Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, 48-year-old founder and leader of the famed “Gung Ho” Marine Raiders, was wounded in one leg and one arm by Jap machine-gun bullets on the eighth day of the Saipan campaign and has been evacuated by transport plane.

Col. Carlson’s wounds, received while he tried to help a wounded private to safety, were not serious.

The Marine leader, plans officer for the 4th Marine Division, went to a forward observation post as a frontline observer June 22 while the Marines were assaulting the important Hill 500 on the southeastern slope of Mt. Tapochau, west of Magicienne Bay.

With him were Lt. Col. Justice M. Chambers of Washington, and Pvt. Vito A. Cassaro of Brooklyn, a radio operator.

Hit while aiding private

Japs spotted their observation post and sprayed the area with hundreds of rounds of machine-gun bullets, one of which hit Pvt. Cassaro in the leg.

Col. Carlson picked up the wounded radio operator and attempted to remove him from the area of fire but was hit himself in the leg and arm.

Meanwhile, Marines turned rifles, Browning automatic rifles and machine guns against the enemy positions and Col. Chambers, under cover or the protective fire, removed Col. Carlson.

Spurns help

When stretcher-bearers appeared on the scene, they attempted to get Col. Carlson out first, but the Raider chief turned down the offer on his prerogative as the ranking officer and refused to be removed, saying: “Vic Cassaro was wounded first. Take him back first.”

Col. Carlson organized his “Gung Ho” Raiders in San Diego, California, living up to the slogan which means work in harmony. Officers and men exchanged ideas at weekly meetings in which enlisted men had as much right of expression as their officers.

He led the Makin raid in August 1942, with then Lt. Col. Jimmy Roosevelt as second in command. His raiders killed all but two of Makin’s Japs in a 36-hour fight.

Fought on Guam

Another achievement of the hardened Marine leader was 20 days spent behind Jap lines on Guadalcanal, living off the land and captured stores while the raiders killed 500 of the enemy and gained valuable information.

An inspiration leader, Col. Carlson never took cover when he led his men through Jap snipers, defensive positions and machine-gun nests. He can be called the most beloved officer by the enlisted men of the Marine Corps.

Col. Carlson wears three Navy Crosses, a Purple Heart from a previous wound and two Presidential Unit Citation ribbons.

63

U.S. Navy Department (July 8, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 75

Before dawn on July 6 (West Longitude Date), several thousand Japanese troops launched a desperate counterattack directed against the left flank of our line on Saipan Island. In this attack, our lines along the western shore were penetrated up to 2,000 yards, and the enemy reached the outskirts of Tanapag Town. The counterattack was halted before noon, and our troops began to push the enemy back. In this assault, the fighting was very severe and numerous casualties were incurred. It is estimated 1,500 Japanese troops were killed. Meanwhile, on the right flank, our forces continued their advance and are now a little more than a mile from the airfield at Marpi Point.

Small groups of enemy planes raided our positions on Saipan before dawn on July 6 and on the night of July 6‑7. Bombs were also dropped near some of our ships but did no damage. One enemy plane was shot down. Isely Field on Saipan was shelled by shore batteries on Tinian Island before dawn on July 6, but the enemy batteries were quickly silenced by destroyer and artillery fire.

Supplementing Communiqué No. 72, it has been determined that 32 enemy aircraft were destroyed and 96 damaged on the ground by our carrier aircraft in attacks on Chichijima and Hahajima on July 3.

Nineteen of the aircraft destroyed and 34 of those damaged were two-engine bombers.

Some of this total may have been damaged in previous strikes by our aircraft.

Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force dropped 43 tons of bombs at the Dublon Island Naval Base in Truk Atoll on July 6. Five of approximately 12 enemy fighters which attempted to intercept our force were shot down. Three of our aircraft received minor damage.

Nauru Island was bombed by Liberator and Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force on July 6. Incendiary bombs started fires visible for 30 miles.

Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked Wotje and Maloelap Atolls on July 6, bombing and strafing remaining enemy defense installations.

64

The Pittsburgh Press (July 8, 1944)

Jap force pinned in Saipan pocket

Enemy squeezed in 6-square-mile area
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
U.S. Marines and Army troops continued their drive today against the Japs squeezed into a six-square-mile area on the northern edge of Saipan, where the enemy defenses were cut off from escape or rescue.

Artillery along the American line across the island was trained on the northern coast, behind the Jap rear. It has already frustrated one enemy attempt to evacuate some of its forces from Saipan.

A communiqué from Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said that about 200 Japs tried to flee the island Tuesday night but either were killed, drowned or swam ashore when artillery shattered their barges.

8,914 Japs buried

Adm. Nimitz also reported that a total of 8,914 Japs had been buried by the Americans, or nearly half the estimated enemy forces on Saipan when it was invaded.

In the campaign to neutralize Japan’s other defenses in the Marianas, carried-based planes raided he airstrips and ground installations on Rota and Guam, south of Saipan, Wednesday and Thursday.

A Tokyo radio broadcast said 60 U.S. bombers and fighters also raided Guam yesterday.

Two U.S. planes lost

The Japs on the two islands failed to put up aerial opposition, but two U.S. planes were lost, apparently to anti-aircraft fire.

Army Liberators raided Truk Atoll; in the Carolines Wednesday, hitting Moen Island with 32 tons of bombs, while other bombers and fighters attacked Wotje, Jaluit and Taroa in the Marshalls, all without loss.

65

Sick, tired and hungry –
Jap civilians on Saipan stream through U.S. lines

Vanguard of plain people forms procession which eventually will lead to Tokyo
By Richard W. Johnston, United Press staff writer

Aboard joint expeditionary force flagship, off Saipan –
Trapped Jap soldiers on Saipan still fought bitterly from the caves of Marpi Point today, but Jap civilians – sick, tired and hungry – streamed down a designated road into our lines, forming a procession which eventually will lead to Tokyo.

They were the vanguard of the Japanese people – plain people capable of recognizing defeat and not imbued with the Bushidō spirit of immolation. They were people who, though half-dead, still wanted to live.

The response to our invitation to surrender distributed by leaflets surprised military leaders, who feared many Jap civilians would either elect or be forced to remain with the enemy troops in the constantly diminishing area of the northern tip of the island.

Make hopeless counterattack

While civilians of all ages and sexes were moving down a specially designated road on which it was forbidden to fire, elsewhere the remnants of the Jap defenders attempted a hopeless, desperate counterattack not unlike those at Attu and Makin.

Hundreds of enemy soldiers died in an assault against U.S. Army lines and those penetrating safely were mopped up in cane fields and ditches along the western coast.

From a series of observation point, it is possible for our troops to see the Marpi Point airstrip. This airstrip has been the object of frantic night aerial activity for three days and it was believed the Japs are making desperate efforts to land at least one or two planes there to evacuate high-ranking officers.

Second attempt fails

Another Jap escape effort was foiled when barges launched from the northwest coast apparently in the hope of sneaking to Tinian under cover of darkness were discovered by our troops.

While our ships near Saipan were blacked out during an enemy air raid, the barges began to move out. Our artillery fire blew them out the water.

Army and Marine units thus far have buried 8,914 Jap soldiers and that by no means represents all that have been killed. Many Jap bodies are still inside caves and others are strewn over rocky cliffs and jungles where they have escaped the notice of burial parties.

Jap air attacks light

Although Jap raiders are overhead every night, taking advantage of the full moon, their efforts have come to naught so far. They are always in small force, thanks to the constant hammering of the Rota and Guam airfields by our carrier-borne planes.

Organization of the conquered section of the island is proceeding rapidly. Work details and Seabees equipped with giant bulldozers are leveling off the wreckage of Garapan – almost shelled to the ground – while other groups are widening and surfacing the primitive roads which apparently served the Japs as “military highways.”

The battle for Saipan is not yet over – but there is no longer any doubt in anybody’s mind, including the Jap soldiers and civilians, as to the outcome.

66

McGaffin: ‘Busy day’ on Saipan Island includes mop up of caves

Major tells how Yanks persuaded Japs in one cavern to surrender
By William McGaffin

With U.S. forces on Saipan, Mariana Islands – (delayed)
Today we visited the boys of Maj. James A. Donovan Jr.’s Command. The major himself ushered us into his command post, in a hollow under a spreading tree. “It’s been a busy day,” he said with a grin.

The young major, only 27 years of age, who hails from Winnetka, Illinois, and is second in command of this battalion, was very happy about the gains his boys had made yesterday – 1,400 yards – although one company had suffered 38 casualties from a sudden burst of enemy fire as they were digging in for the night. Since D-Day, this particular company has lost all but one of its original officers.

Clean out caves

Maj. Donovan explained that his men had come on a network of caves 50 yards away from us and that they were engaged in cleaning them out.

A couple of Jap soldiers rushed out at that moment in an attempt to put up some resistance. They were killed.

Then, as we watched, our boys approached the lip of the cave cautiously and, although their knowledge of Japanese is limited, managed to persuade the multitude inside to come out.

Civilians emerge

A long file of more than 150 began to emerge, some of them men in home guard uniform, but mainly Jap civilians – old men, young women carrying babies on their backs, and some old women too feeble to walk who were carried on litters by our medical corpsmen. Apparently, they had been in the cave ever since invasion day.

The sound of other caves being flushed out was also discernible. This time it was the lethal sound of dynamite and flamethrowers, for these caves were full of Jap soldiers who wouldn’t budge. It was dangerous business. Those cave-dwellers were well armed.

Maj. Donovan told how one of his lieutenants had shot a Jap sniper shortly before we arrived, right in the command post area, and 20 minutes later got it himself when he approached one of the surrounding caves.

67

Völkischer Beobachter (July 9, 1944)

Zwei weitere Flugzeugträger bei Saipan versenkt

Tokio, 8. Juli –
Zwei weitere US-Flugzeugträger sind in den Gewässern bei Saipan gesunken, wird von einem japanischen Stützpunkt im Zentralpazifik am Samstag gemeldet. Die Versenkung der beiden Flugzeugträger, die erst jetzt bestätigt werden konnte, erfolgte am 18. und 19. Juni.

Damit steigt der Gesamtverlust der Alliierten in den Gewässern der Marianen und der Bonininseln in der Zeit von dem ersten Erscheinen der alliierten Flottenstreitkräfte am 11. Juni bis zum 30. Juni auf 50 versenkte und beschädigte Kriegsschiffe.

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U.S. Navy Department (July 9, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 76

Our forces have completed the conquest of Saipan. Organized resistance ended on the afternoon of July 8 (West Longitude Date) and the elimination of scattered, disorganized remnants of the enemy force is proceeding rapidly.

Aircraft of our fast carrier task force attacked Guam and Rota on July 7‑8 (West Longitude Date). Runways, anti-aircraft batteries, coastal defense guns and barracks were subjected to rocket fire and bombing. On July 7, nine enemy fighters apparently attempting to fly from Guam to Yap Island were shot down by our combat air patrol. Six twin‑engine enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground and two were probably destroyed near Agana Town at Guam. We lost one fighter and one torpedo bomber in these raids.

Twenty‑two tons of bombs were dropped on Truk Atoll on the night of July 7‑8 by Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force. There was no interception, and all of our planes returned safely.

During July 7, Mille, Jaluit, Taroa, and Wotje were harassed by Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and a search Catalina of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two, attacked Taroa before dawn on July 7. We lost no planes.

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The Pittsburgh Press (July 9, 1944)

Suicide attack on Saipan costs Japs 1,500 killed

Enemy pierces U.S. lines in charge before dawn, but is halted after half day
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (July 8)
Desperate Jap troops cornered on the northern tip of Saipan Island opened a string counterattack against U.S. forces before dawn Thursday and scored a net ground gain of about three-fourths of a mile at a cost of approximately 1,500 dead, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced today. U.S. casualties were also numerous.

A Pacific Fleet communiqué also disclosed a total of 66 Jap planes were destroyed and 96 damaged in the previous-announced carrier attacks on Chichi and Haha Islands in the Bonin group.

Marines and soldiers who have been closing in for the kill on Saipan halted the Jap counteroffensive after a half-day of severe fighting.

The enemy drove 2,000 yards into our lines before the U.S. troops smashed back and stopped the fanatic Japs trying to sell Saipan as dearly as possible.

The right flank of the U.S. forces continued to advance and reached a point slightly more than a mile from the uncompleted airfield at Marpi Point at the extreme northern end of the 15-mile-long island.

“Several thousand” Japs participated in the counterattack. They lunged against the American left flank before sunrise and reached the outskirts of Tanapag Town, captured by U.S. troops several days ago.

The enemy assault was pinned down before noon. Then the Americans began pushing the Japs back and recovered approximately 800 yards of the ground they had lost.

The counterattack appeared to be a hopeless gesture by the remnants of a garrison which now faces either death or capture on the narrow northern tip of Saipan.

While the ground fighting reached a new peak of intensity on the northwestern shore, the Jap garrison on Tinian Island, two and a half miles south of Saipan, opened an artillery barrage against U.S.-held Isely Airfield across the Tinian Channel.

U.S. destroyers and artillery on Saipan quickly silenced the Jap batteries.

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Wheeler: Saipan Island dust worse than that of U.S. prairies

Disintegrated coral coats everything with gritty, yellow stucco
By Keith Wheeler, North American Newspaper Alliance

Saipan, Mariana Islands – (June 22, delayed)
I was born on the edge of the American Midwestern dust bowl and I’ve seen prairie gales lift the granulated top soil and draw it like a curtain across the sky.

But I’ve never seen anything like the dust of the Saipan beachhead.

Probably before we came, Saipan’s roads were no more dusty than coral-surfaced roads ever are – although that’s dusty enough. Now the narrow roads carry more traffic every 24 hours than they ever carried in any previous year.

Amphibious tractors, laden with men, ammunition, guns, water and barbed wire, claw into the coral with their steel-toothed treads. Tanks, halftracks and great track-laying prime movers churn through the dust. Jeeps, trailers, trucks, captured Jap vehicles, bicycles, oxcarts and tramping men crawl back and forth in an endless procession.

Under this pounding, the coral has disintegrated. The roads are eight inches deep in a fine yellow powder and the whole five miles of waterfront lies perpetually hidden under an opaque yellow pall.

“It’s like wading knee-deep in talcum powder,” one gasping Martine said. The dust permeates everything within 1,000 yards of the beach and dictates the life of the men that live there.

You plod 100 yards through the dust and your face is plastered in a gritty, yellow stucco so that not even your abundant sweat wets the outside later. It coats the palms, breadfruit, and papaya trees so thickly that they bend with its weight.

It blinds red-eyed drivers in rolling yellow clouds, picked up by their own vehicles, and all traffic moves at a crawl. It sifts down like a harsh unmalting snow into the faces of sleeping men, flavors their food, fills their clothing and packs and provides a thin burial shroud for the fetid Jap corpses that no one has yet had time to bury.

Neither dust nor bombs nor shells nor snipers can halt the great river of men and tools of war that flows painfully up from the sea to the land. Beach parties have contrived to land thousands of tons of food, water, ammunition, guns, wire, oil, gasoline, trucks and tractors each day. Hardly a day has passed that the pace has not been kept up. It is backbreaking, brutal, dangerous and utterly without glory.

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Völkischer Beobachter (July 10, 1944)

US-Verluste im Fernen Osten und Pazifik –
Der lange Weg bis Tokio

Madrid, 9. Juli –
An die pessimistischen Erklärungen Roosevelts über den Verlauf des Krieges in China knüpft der Neuyorker Korrespondent der Agentur Efe an, die Worte Roosevelts haben in der nordamerikanischen Öffentlichkeit Unruhe hervorgerufen, schreibt Lucientes. Die Neuyorker Zeitung Journal American halte es für ausgeschlossen, daß sich die Situation in China in den nächsten Monaten bessern könnte. Die Transportschwierigkeiten Tschiangkaischeksseien zu groß. Die Wiedergewinnung der Burmastraße würde an dieser verzweifelten Lage ebenfalls nichts ändern, sagt die genannte Zeitung.

Auch die übrigen Blätter Neuyorks brächten zum Ausdruck, daß der Weg bis Tokio noch sehr lang, hart und kostspielig sein werde. Die Eroberung nur eines Teiles der Insel Saipan habe den Nordamerikanern fast 10.000 Mann Verluste gekostet. Dies sei nach dem eigenen Urteil der amerikanischen Journalisten aber erst der Anfang. Man habe bisher überhaupt noch keine Bekanntschaft mit den großen Armeen Japans oder auch nur eines Teiles derjenige, die in China, Mandschukuo, auf Java, den Philippinen und den Malaien stünden, gemacht.