Battle for Saipan
Map of the Battle of Saipan
| date | June 15, 1944 to July 9, 1944 |
|---|---|
| place | Saipan ( Mariana Islands ) |
| output | American victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Admiral Richmond K. Turner , |
General Saitō Yoshitsugu , |
| Troop strength | |
| 71,000 soldiers and marines, 200 amphibious tanks |
26,000 Japanese soldiers, 4,000 Korean forced laborers |
| losses | |
|
3,500 dead, |
26,000 dead, |
| Civilians: 4,000 Korean forced laborers, 12,000 Japanese |
|
The Battle of Saipan was a major battle as part of the Pacific War during World War II . It took place in June 1944 as part of the conquest of the Mariana Islands by the US Marines on the main island of Saipan , which had been strongly fortified by the Japanese defenders under General Saitō Yoshitsugu . On July 9, the island was reported as secure, although dispersed Japanese units continued the fight. The traces of the battle can still be seen on Saipan today and are visited by Japanese and American tourists and veterans .
prehistory
Saipan was under German administration ( German New Guinea ) from 1899 to 1914 . After the withdrawal of the German colonial troops in 1918, the Japanese Empire took over the island and built an airfield there in 1930. Since 1935, land-based Japanese aircraft operated from this runway. In 1940, shortly before the outbreak of the Pacific War , the Japanese government under Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki ordered the construction of strong defenses on the islands of the Central Pacific, including the Marianas. Saipan and Tinian were built into strong fortresses in 1941, while Guam Island , which had been captured by Japanese soldiers in early 1942, was fortified in 1943. Around 6,000 soldiers were stationed on Saipan at the end of 1942, and were reinforced by a further 20,000 in the course of 1943. The Japanese 2nd Panzer Brigade was also stationed on the island. To this end, numerous forced laborers were recruited from the Korean civilian population to work on the expansion of the defensive structures that were not yet completed.
After the Battle of Midway , a turning point in the Pacific War emerged for the US armed forces ; The reason for this was the newly developed tactic of so-called " island hopping ", in which the most strongly fortified enemy bases were not attacked and only a few islands were conquered. With this tactic the Solomon Islands , the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and almost all of New Guinea had already been recaptured. In early 1944, the US staff decided to use the same tactic to bring the Marianas, 6,000 km from Hawaii , under US control.
Intentions
The Mariana Islands are around 2,400 km from the main Japanese islands ; this corresponded to the range of the new American B-29 Superfortress bomber . Therefore, in May 1944, when the plan of operations for the conquest of the Mariana Islands was released for implementation , the Joint Chiefs of Staff intended to use the two important airfields, East and Isley Field on Saipan Island, to conduct air strikes on mainland Japan. The establishment of further air force bases on the Mariana Islands made it possible to control the central Pacific, as land-based US aircraft could monitor this sector. Thus, the Fast Carrier Task Force was no longer needed in the Central Pacific.
In addition, through the conquest of the Mariana Islands, an air bar could be driven between the Japanese motherland and Indonesia , from which the Japanese obtained many raw materials, including oil, which is important for the war effort. US planes stationed on the Mariana Islands were able to bomb the enemy ship convoys from Borneo and Java to the Philippines . The Mariana Islands were also able to serve as the northern flank and important air base in the recapture of the Philippines , which the JCS were already considering .
Course of the battle
The bombing and shelling of Saipan began on June 13, 1944. Fifteen warships, including the battleships USS Colorado , Pennsylvania , Massachusetts, and South Dakota , fired a total of 165,000 shells at the island during about 200 bombers and fighter pilots of the 7th Air Force Saipan Day and night bombed. Large quantities of napalm bombs were also used. The Imperial planes on the island tried to repel the US air strikes, with the Japanese losses totaling 67 machines. The 7th Air Force lost 33 aircraft.
landing
Landing on Saipan began as scheduled on June 15 at 7:00 a.m. More than 300 landing ships ( LSM , LVT and office racks ) brought about 8,000 Marines of the 2nd and 4th Marine Division and about 200 M4 Sherman - amphibious tanks at the two landing sections of the west coast of Saipan (codenamed Red Beach 1 and Red Beach 2 ) on land . Four destroyers approached the coast during the operation to fire on selected inland targets, with the 7th Air Force's B-24 Liberator bombers being canceled. During the landing operations, however, the Amtracks, which were waiting off the coast, were fired upon by the Japanese artillery batteries on Mount Tapochau . About 20 Amtracks were destroyed, but at 8:00 a.m. the Japanese stopped firing to save ammunition. As soon as the first Marines were ashore, they were shot at from the bunkers of the first beach defense line, which was built about 50 meters from the beach. These positions could be overcome by the evening through the use of flamethrowers and shelling by destroyers. 400 marines and 2,000 Japanese were killed. At 10:00 p.m. the Marines had erected a bridgehead 10 km wide and 1 km deep. Two night counter-attacks by a total of 5,000 Japanese soldiers who had gathered in Magicienne Bay were repulsed by machine gun fire with heavy US losses, and at midnight the Japanese tank brigade defending the island also became one Battle against American Sherman tanks worn out.
On the morning of June 16, units of the American 27th Infantry Division landed on Saipan and started the advance to the Aslito airfield together with the exhausted marines, where they encountered fierce resistance from the Japanese troops on the second line of defense. General Yoshitsugu Saito also ordered counter-attacks that night, which were repulsed by American troops. On June 18, the airfield was reached by units of the 4th Marine Division. After bitter fighting against a 1,200-strong enemy airfield battalion, supported by the last 30 Japanese Chi-Ha tanks, Aslito Field was secured, and on June 22nd, the first American machine, an F4U Corsair of the Marine Corps, landed on the tarmac , now renamed Isley Field .
The Japanese navy was surprised by the invasion of Saipan, expecting the attack further south, in the Palau Islands . Admiral Toyoda Soemu now saw the possibility of attacking the forces of the US Navy, which were gathered around Saipan. On June 15, Toyoda gave the order to attack Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's Combined Fleet . The following battle in the Philippine Sea brought a devastating defeat for the Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and 400 aircraft, while the American losses were only about 120 machines. The garrisons on the Mariana Islands could not be supplied by the Japanese Navy and strengthened after this defeat.
Reorganization of the Japanese defense
After the destruction of the combined fleet in the Philippine Sea, the battle was hopeless for Saipan's approximately 12,000-strong defenders, as reinforcements could no longer arrive. But according to the Bushido Codex , the Japanese troops decided to continue fighting the Americans. In a staff conference with Admiral Takagi Takeo and Admiral Nagumo Chūichi , commander of the 2,000 marines on Saipan, General Saito determined a new defense strategy: he gathered the exhausted troops of the 43rd Infantry Division and the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade, as well as the last ten tanks of the 2nd . Panzer brigade in the easily defended hinterland to reorganize. The Japanese soldiers then manned the fortification lines built before the battle, mostly bunkers, rolls of barbed wire and anti-tank barriers, in order to organize a stable defense in front of the important East Field airfield . They also used the many natural caves as additional defensive positions, especially in the range of hills in the center of the island and on Mount Tapochau, where more than 600 machine gun nests had been built.
The Japanese soldiers used these positions to hide during the day and carry out surprising banzai attacks at night. The Americans then developed tactics to cut the caves. So-called corkscrew teams were used: groups of six soldiers who were to blow up every bunker and cave with flamethrowers and hand grenades. The US troops were supported on their advance towards the airfield by heavy artillery and air fire: the Navajo code talkers played a key role in the code communication for the control of the ship and field artillery, as the Japanese were unable to transmit their complex language translate. Hundreds of defensive positions and caves were destroyed, so that on July 1st the mountain Tapochau and the important small town Garapan could be conquered. But the American soldiers of the 27th Infantry Division and the Marines were still being held up by booby traps and snipers. On July 2, US forces lost around 2,000 dead while another 4,000 were wounded.
End of battle
On July 5, the surviving Japanese, around 5,000 soldiers together with 20,000 civilians, had to retreat to the northern tip of the island and were surrounded by a US tank brigade, so that there were no more opportunities to retreat. Ammunition, food, heavy weapons, anti-tank cannons , machine guns, telecommunications equipment and vehicles were only available in very small quantities and most of the defense positions had been destroyed. As of July 6, each Japanese soldier had no more than 60 rounds of ammunition. General Yoshitsugu Saito disbanded the 43rd Infantry Division on July 7th. In the evening, after a final briefing in his command post together with Admiral Takagi, Admiral Nagumo, General Hirakushi and Major Igeta, he gave his remaining troops the order for a final suicide attack, which took place on the night of July 7th. Twelve soldiers with a red flag headed towards the enemy lines, followed by 4,000 Japanese, most of them armed only with bamboo spears . During this attack, the American soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Battalions, 105th Infantry Regiment, were surrounded and completely wiped out, but the banzai attack was stopped at 5:00 a.m. on the morning of July 8th by heavy artillery fire from the 5th Artillery Battalion. The attack cost the Japanese 3,900 men. The American losses were 644 dead and 2,000 wounded. General Saito, Admiral Takagi, Admiral Nagumo and officers Igeta and Hirakushi had committed seppuku in a cave in the northern tip of Saipan in the first hours of July 8th .
losses
Over the course of the 20-day battle, almost 44,000 people lost their lives: including around 24,000 soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army and around 3,500 Marines and GIs from the US armed forces . There are also an estimated 12,000 Japanese civilians and 4,000 Korean slave laborers.
The high number of civilian deaths among the civilian population of the island of Saipan is mainly due to the fact that many of them prefer to move from the rocky northern tip of the island to the island because of the fear of the Americans spread among civilians by the Japanese propaganda Death fell when surrendering to the American occupiers. The Japanese soldiers, on the other hand, ritually committed seppuku by killing themselves with Shin-Gunto katanas or pistols. As the American eyewitnesses report, the imperial troops also shot civilians to prevent them from surrendering to the Americans. Thousands of Japanese people still make pilgrimages to the so-called suicide cliff every year to commemorate their compatriots who have died.
Final considerations
The fall of the island of Saipan had a demoralizing effect on the Japanese troops on the two neighboring islands of Tinian and Guam, which were also attacked and captured by American marines a few days later . However, 46 soldiers under Captain Sakae Oba fought on Saipan until they surrendered in December 1945. The Americans used the two airfields East and Isley Field on Saipan from then on for their extensive B-29 air raids on Japan. However, the bombers that took part in these air strikes were not escorted by fighter planes and were therefore at the mercy of the Japanese interceptors. With the capture of the airfields on the island of Iwojima in March 1945, the B-29 bombers could be escorted and defended by P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft, but the two B-29 bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar , which carried the two atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man dropped, took off from Tinian Island.
After the end of the war, Saipan and Guam were placed under US administration by the UN ; they have had the status of a state associated with the USA since 1978. Today, the US armed forces mainly use Guam as an important air base in the Pacific. Saipan, on the other hand, as the largest island and capital of the northern Mariana Islands and as a former theater of war, is still visited today mainly by Japanese and South Korean vacationers and battle veterans.
Medal of Honor awards
Seven soldiers were honored with the Medal of Honor , the highest military distinction in the United States , for their service in the battle :
- Pfc. Harold Agerholm
- Sgt. Thomas Baker
- Pfc. Harold Epperson
- GySgt. Robert McCard
- Lt Col. William O'Brien
- Cpt. Benjamin Salomon
- Sgt.Grant Timmerman
Movies
Web links
- Search for Battle of Saipan in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
- The search for Saipan was on the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
- The Battle of Saipan (English)
- サ イ パ ン 島 の 玉 砕 (Battle of Saipan).大 東 亜 戦 争 全 史 (Greater Asian War), accessed March 27, 2015 .