Grehan, John Operation Forager

The Pacific War's Decisive Campaign. Guam, Saipan and Tinian, 1944

Deep in the central Pacific lies a group of small islands called the Mariana Islands, an archipelago only 900 miles from Japan. In 1944, the main islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian were within range of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. As part of Operation Forager, the capture of these islands became an important goal of the US strategy in the Pacific. On 15 June 1944, US Marines landed on Saipan, the most heavily defended island in the Marianas. It took three weeks of fierce fighting from the beaches to the rugged mountains in the interior before the Japanese were defeated. It was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War to date. But it was, as US General Holland Smith claimed, the decisive battle of the Pacific campaign. Guam was the next target. With a garrison of around 20,000 men, the Americans knew that another bloodbath awaited them. After massive air and sea bombardments, the Marines stormed ashore again. Day after day, the Americans advanced through dense jungle and heavily wooded hills until organised resistance was broken on 10 August. During the fighting on Guam, the tiny island of Tinian was captured, completing the US victory in the Marianas. No sooner had the fighting ended than work began on expanding the existing airfields on the islands and building new ones. Tinian became a huge air base, which in its heyday was the busiest airfield in the world. The Battle of the Marianas was the scene of the largest banzai attack of the war, mass suicides by the Japanese, the heaviest bombardment modern warfare could produce, and determined, even self-sacrificing resistance in hot, hostile and unhealthy jungles. Through a unique collection of photographs and the words of those who were there, this decisive operation that heralded Japan's final defeat is vividly recounted.