5th Battalion, 14th Marines was created on 1 March 1944, when the 4th Marine Division returned to Camp Maui, Territory of Hawaii, following its first action at the Battle of Kwajalein. The new unit was made up of a headquarters battery plus three firing batteries armed with four M2A1 105mm howitzers each. This was a short lived activation because the battalion was redesignated the 4th 105mm Howitzer Battalion, V Amphibious Corps (VAC) on 16 April, just six weeks later. This was purely an administrative move since the battalion was attached to the 14th Marine Regiment for upcoming "Operation Forager", the invasion of the Marianas. Throughout Operation Forager, the battalion continued to be referred to as "5/14" in after action reports, and at least one official history uses that terminology as well.