On This Day - June 15, 1944, following a massive bombardment in which more than 165,000

On This Day - June 15, 1944, following a massive bombardment in which more than 165,000 shells were fired, American troops began landing on the Japanese held island of Saipan.

Saipan was a part of the strategically located Marianas Island chain. The United States’ seizure of it would sever Japanese communications with many of their other island bases farther in the Pacific, as well as provide a base for B-29 bombers heading for the Japanese mainland. Beginning at 7:00 am on June 15, more than 8,000 Marines landed on the western coast of the island, running into carefully prepared Japanese defenses laden with barb wire, artillery, and machine gun emplacements. All were placed to inflict maximum American casualties. At the end of the day the Americans had established a beach head and were able to hold off a large counterattack, inflicting horrendous casualties on the Japanese. The next day, June 16, soldiers from the Army’s 27th Infantry Division began landing on the other side of Saipan, and the Japanese were pushed back toward the island’s central hills.

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This mountainous terrain played host to some of the deadliest fighting of the Pacific Theatre, and the Americans gave the terrain grim nicknames such as "Hell's Pocket", “Death Valley,” and "Purple Heart Ridge.” The Battle of Saipan lasted more than three weeks, and following a last ditch, massive Japanese banzai charge, the island was taken by the Americans on July 9. The battle was, at that time, the costliest of the Pacific theater, costing the Americans 2,949 killed and 10,464 wounded out of the 71,000 who landed at Saipan. The Japanese lost 30,000 killed, almost the entire defending force.

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