Battle of Saipan

Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944 as part of Operation Forager. It has been referred to as the "Pacific D-Day" with the invasion fleet departing Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched, launching nine days later. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the Army's 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saitō. The loss of Saipan, with the deaths of at least 29,000 troops and heavy civilian casualties, precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tōjō and left the Japanese archipelago within the range of United States Army Air Forces B-29 bombers.
Background
In the campaigns of 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Allies had captured the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Papuan Peninsula of New Guinea. This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, the Palau Islands, and the Mariana Islands.
The Mariana Islands had not been a key part of pre-war American planning (War Plans Orange and Rainbow) because the islands were well north of a direct sea route between Hawaii and the Philippines. At the time, naval air/sea/logistics ability were not envisioned as being able to support operations against a place so far from potential land-based support. But by early 1943 Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet, had become increasingly convinced of the strategic location of the islands as a base for submarine operations and air facilities for Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombing of the Japanese home islands. From these latter bases, communications between Japan and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. From the Marianas, Japan would be well within the range of an air offensive relying on the new B-29 with its operational radius of .
The capture of the Marianas was formally endorsed in the Cairo Conference of November 1943. The plan had the support of U.S. Army Air Force planners because the airfields on Saipan were large enough to support B-29 operations, within range of the Japanese home islands, and unlike a China-based alternative, was not open to Japanese counter-attacks once the islands were secure. However, General Douglas MacArthur strenuously objected to any plan that would delay his return to the Philippines. His objections were routed through formal channels as well as bypassing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appealing directly to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
MacArthur's objections were not without tactical reasoning based on the experience of the invasion of Tarawa but were voiced before the vastly improved experience in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the increase in naval forces, the successful attack on Truk and the Caroline Islands by carrier-based aircraft, and coordinated armed services experience gained by all these operations in Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s Pacific Ocean Area of operations.
While not part of the original American plan, MacArthur, Commander of the South West Pacific Area, obtained authorization to advance through New Guinea and Morotai toward the Philippines. This allowed MacArthur to keep his personal pledge to liberate the Philippines, made in his "I shall return" speech, and also allowed the active use of the large forces built up in the southwest Pacific theatre. The Japanese, expecting an attack somewhere on their perimeter, thought an attack on the Caroline Islands most likely. To reinforce and supply their garrisons, they needed naval and air superiority, so Operation A-Go, a major carrier attack, was prepared for June 1944.
Opposing forces
United States
US Fifth Fleet
Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
Northern Attack Force (Task Force 52)
Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner
Expeditionary Troops (Task Force 56)
Lieut. General Holland M. Smith, USMC
Approx. 59,800 officers and enlisted
V Amphibious Corps (Lt. Gen. Smith)
2nd Marine Division (Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Watson, USMC)
4th Marine Division (Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt, USMC)
27th Infantry Division (Army) (Maj. Gen. Ralph C. Smith, USA)
Japan
Central Pacific Area Fleet HQ
Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo
Thirty-first Army
Lieut. General Hideyoshi Obata
Defenses of Saipan
Lieut. General Yoshitsugu Saitō
Approx. 25,500 army and 6,200 navy personnel
43rd Division
47th Independent Mixed Brigade
Miscellaneous units
Battle
The bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944 with seven fast battleships, 11 destroyers and 10 fast minesweepers under Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr. The battleships delivered 2,400 shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of or more and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day, two naval bombardment groups led by Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf arrived on the shore of Saipan. This force was the main naval fire support for the seizure of the island and consisted of 7 dreadnoughts, 11 cruisers, and 26 destroyers, along with destroyer transports and fast minesweepers. The dreadnoughts, commissioned between 1915 and 1921, were trained in shore bombardment and were able to move into closer range. Four of them (and ) were survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The landings began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships Tennessee and California, the cruisers and , the destroyers and . Careful artillery preparation—placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range—allowed the Japanese to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and they had placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about wide and deep. The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repelled with heavy losses. On 16 June units of the 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the airfield at Ås Lito. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June Saito abandoned the airfield.
The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. Admiral Shigetarō Shimada, Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), saw an opportunity to use the A-Go force to attack the U.S. Navy forces around Saipan. On 15 June he gave the order to attack. But the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the IJN, which lost three aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes.
Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders, but the Japanese were determined to fight to the last man. Saitō organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapochau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. The nicknames given by the Americans to the features of the battle—"Hell's Pocket", "Purple Heart Ridge" and "Death Valley"—indicate the severity of the fighting. The Japanese used many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns.
The operation was marred by inter-service controversy when Marine General Holland Smith, dissatisfied with the performance of the 27th Division, relieved its commander, Army Major General Ralph C. Smith. However, Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Essentially, it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese.
By 6 July the Japanese had nowhere to retreat. Saitō made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured." At dawn of 7 July with a group of 12 men carrying a red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops — about 4,000 men — charged forward in the final attack. Behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. The Japanese surged over the American front lines, engaging both Army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing well over 650 killed and wounded. The two battalions fought back, as did the Headquarters Company, 105th Infantry, and supply elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Artillery Regiment, resulting in over 4,300 Japanese killed and over 400 dead US soldiers with more than 500 more wounded. The attack on 7 July would be the largest Japanese banzai charge in the Pacific War.
By 16:15 on 9 July, Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured. Saitō, along with commanders Hirakushi and Igeta, committed suicide in a cave. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor, also committed suicide in the closing stages of the battle. He had been in command of the Japanese naval air forces stationed on the island.
In the end, almost the entire garrison of troops on the island—at least 29,000—died. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War: out of 71,000 who landed, 2,949 were killed and 10,464 wounded. Future Hollywood actor Lee Marvin was among the many Americans wounded. He was serving with "I" Company, 24th Marine Regiment, when he was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class in 1945.
Smith and V Amphibious Corps (VAC) anticipated that taking Saipan would be difficult, and they wanted to have a mechanized flamethrowing capability. Research, development, and procurement made that a long-term prospect. So VAC purchased 30 Canadian Ronson flamethrowers and requested that the Army's Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in Hawaii install them in M3 Stuarts, and termed them M3 Satans. Seabees with the CWS had 24 ready for the battle.
Aftermath
With the capture of Saipan, the American military was only away from the home islands of Japan. Holland Smith said: "It was the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive [...] it opened the way to the Japanese home islands." The victory would prove to be one of the most important strategic moments during the war in the Pacific Theater, as the Japanese archipelago was now within striking distance of United States' B-29 bombers. From this point on, Saipan would become the launch point for retaking other islands in the Mariana chain and the invasion of the Philippines in October 1944. Four months after capture, more than 100 B-29s from Saipan's Isely Field were regularly attacking the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese mainland. In response, Japanese aircraft attacked Saipan and Tinian on several occasions between November 1944 and January 1945. The U.S. capture of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) ended further Japanese air attacks.
The loss of Saipan was a heavy blow to both the military and civilian administration of Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tōjō. According to one Japanese admiral: "Our war was lost with the loss of Saipan." Shortly after Saipan was taken, a meeting at the Imperial General Headquarters was convened where it was decided that a symbolic change of leadership should be made: Tōjō would step aside and Emperor Hirohito would have less involvement in day-to-day military affairs, even though he was defined as both head of state and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The general staff believed it was time to distance the Imperial House of Japan from blame as the tide of war turned against the Japanese. Although Tōjō agreed to resign, Hirohito blocked his resignation because he considered Tōjō to be Japan's strongest war leader. But after Tōjō failed to shuffle his Cabinet because of excessive internal hostility, he conceded defeat. On 18 July Tōjō again submitted his resignation, this time unequivocally. His entire cabinet resigned with him. Former IJA General Kuniaki Koiso became prime minister on 22 July. However, because of the legacy of Saipan, Koiso was nothing more than a titular prime minister and was prevented by the Imperial General Headquarters from participating in any military decisions.
Saipan also saw a change in the way Japanese war reporting was presented on the home front. Initially as the battle started, Japanese accounts concentrated on the fighting spirit of the IJA and the heavy casualties it was inflicting on American forces. However, any reader familiar with Saipan's geography would have known from the chronology of engagements that the U.S. forces were relentlessly advancing northwards. No further mention of Saipan was made following the final battle on 7 July, which was not initially reported to the public. However, after Tōjō's resignation on 18 July, an accurate, almost day-by-day account of the defeat on Saipan was published jointly by the army and navy. It mentioned the near total loss of all Japanese soldiers and civilians on the island and the use of "human bullets". The reports had a devastating effect on Japanese opinion; mass suicides were now seen as defeat, not evidence of an "Imperial Way". This was the first time Japanese forces had accurately been depicted in a battle since Midway, which had been proclaimed a victory.
Further resistance
While the battle officially ended on 9 July, Japanese resistance still persisted with Captain Sakae Ōba and 46 other soldiers who survived with him during the last banzai charge. After the battle, Oba and his soldiers led many civilians through the jungle to escape capture by the Americans, while also conducting guerrilla-style attacks on pursuing forces. The Americans tried numerous times to hunt them down but failed. In September 1944, the Marines began conducting patrols in the island's interior, searching for survivors who were raiding their camp for supplies. Although some of the soldiers wanted to fight, Ōba asserted that their primary concerns were to protect the civilians and to stay alive to continue the war. At one point, the Japanese soldiers and civilians were almost captured by the Americans as they hid in a clearing and ledges of a mountain, some were less than 20 feet (6.1 m) above the heads of the Marines, but the Americans failed to see them. Oba's holdout lasted for approximately 16 months before finally surrendering on 1 December 1945, three months after the official surrender of Japan. Oba's resistance was so successful that it caused the reassignment of a commander. U.S. Marines gave Oba the nickname "The Fox."
Civilian casualties
At least 25,000 Japanese civilians lived on Saipan at the time of the battle. Civilian shelters were located virtually everywhere on the island, with very little difference from military bunkers noticeable to attacking Marines. The standard method of clearing suspected bunkers was the use of high-explosive and/or high-explosives augmented with petroleum (e.g., gelignite, napalm, diesel fuel). The weapons used and the tactics of close quarter fighting resulted in high civilian casualties.
The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June 1944 that soon had more than 1,000 inmates. Electric lights at the camp were conspicuously left on overnight to attract other civilians with the promise of three warm meals and no risk of being shot in combat accidentally.
More than 1,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle to take the offered privileged place in the afterlife, some jumping from places later named "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff". These would become part of the National Historic Landmark District as Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isely Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, designated in 1985. Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victims' souls.
Military awards
For their actions during the 15-hour Japanese banzai charge, three men of the 105th Infantry Regiment were awarded the Medal of Honor: Lieutenant Colonel William O'Brien, Captain Ben L. Salomon, and Private Thomas A. Baker, all posthumously. Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard and Private First Class Harold G. Epperson were also posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Sergeant James T. Mitchell was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism as a squad leader, serving with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines.
Private First Class Guy Gabaldon of Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was credited with capturing more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners during the battle. Gabaldon, who was raised by Japanese-Americans, convinced Japanese soldiers and civilians alike that U.S. troops were not barbarians, and that they would be well treated upon surrender. For his outstanding bravery, which earned him the nickname, "The Pied Piper of Saipan," Gabaldon received a Silver Star, which was upgraded to the Navy Cross. During the war, his commanders had requested that he receive the Medal of Honor for his actions. In 1998, efforts were re-initiated to secure the Medal of Honor for Gabaldon.
Memorial
Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff, along with surviving isolated Japanese fortifications, are recognized as historic sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The cliffs are also part of the National Historic Landmark District Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, which also includes the American landing beaches, the B-29 runways of Isley Field, and the surviving Japanese infrastructure of the Aslito and Marpi Point airfields.
The American Memorial Park on Saipan commemorates the U.S. and Mariana veterans of the Mariana Islands campaign.
See also
Battle of Saipan order of battle
Maritime Heritage Trail – Battle of Saipan
Footnotes
Notes
References
Goldberg, Harold, D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan, Indiana University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-253-34869-2
Hoyt, Edwin P., Japan's War, pp. 348–349
ISBN 0-252-07038-0
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936–1945, Random House, 1970.
Toll, Ian W., The Conquering Tide
Further reading
Books
– Firsthand account of naval gunfire support by a crewmember of USS Maryland.
Web
Saipan – a 2nd Marine Division pamphlet describing certain expected features of the invasion and combat, including the presence of a large civilian population.
Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan (Marines in World War II Commemorative Series)
Banzai charge in Saipan: Gyokusai Suicide for the Emperor?
SMU's Frank J. Davis World War II Photographs contain 129 images of Saipan, including 18 images depicting the surrender of the famous "hold-out" Japanese forces under the command of Captain Oba in December 1945
External links
Small Unit Actions: The Fight on Tanapag Plain; 27th Division 6 July 1944
Battles and operations of World War II involving Japan
Saipan
History of the Northern Mariana Islands
June 1944 events
July 1944 events
Mass suicides
Saipan
Saipan
United States Army in World War II
United States Marine Corps in World War II
World War II operations and battles of the Pacific theatre