Mariana and Palau Islands campaign

Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Water Buffalo loaded with Marines.jpg

A U.S. amphibious tractor loaded with Marines approaches Tinian during the U.S. landings on that island
Date June – November, 1944
Location Mariana and Palau Islands, Pacific Ocean
Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
 United States Japan Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Chester Nimitz
Richmond K. Turner
Holland Smith
Raymond A. Spruance
Roy Geiger
Harry Schmidt
William H. Rupertus
Paul J. Mueller
Yoshitsugu Saito  
Chuichi Nagumo  
Jisaburo Ozawa
Kakuji Kakuta  
Takeshi Takashina  
Hideyoshi Obata  
Kiyochi Ogata  
Sadae Inoue
Kunio Nakagawa  
Casualties and losses
9,500 killed 63,000+ killed

The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.

Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft. Only a few of the twenty-four thousand Japanese defenders on the island were captured; large numbers of local civilians threw themselves and their children off high cliffs rather than be captured.

Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.

Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryuku Islands beginning in January, 1945.

Forager.jpg

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References

Books

  • D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X. 
  • Denfeld, D. Colt (1997). Hold the Marianas: The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands. White Mane Pub. ISBN 1-57249-014-4. 
  • Drea, Edward J. (1998). "An Allied Interpretation of the Pacific War". In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1708-0. 
  • Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1. 
  • Gailey, Harry (1988). The Liberation of Guam 21 July–10 August. Novato, California, U.S.A.: Presidio Press. ISBN 0-89141-651-X. 
  • Gailey, Harry (1984). Peleliu: 1944. Nautical & Aviation Pub Co of Amer. ISBN 093385241X. 
  • Goldberg, Harold J. (2007). D-day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34869-2. 
  • Hallas, James H. (1994). The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275946460. 
  • Morison, Samuel Eliot (2001 (reissue)). New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944–August 1944, vol. 8 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Champaign, Illinois, USA: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-07038-0. 
  • O'Brien, Francis A. (2003). Battling for Saipan. Presdio Press. ISBN 0-89141-804-0. 
  • Ross, Bill D. (1991). Peleliu: Tragic Triumph. Random House. ISBN 0394565886. 
  • Rottman, Gordon; Howard Gerrard (2004). Saipan & Tinian 1944: Piercing the Japanese Empire. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-804-9. 
  • Rottman, Gordon; Howard Gerrard (2002). Peleliu 1944: The Forgotten Corner of Hell. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841765120. 
  • Sloan, Bill (2005). Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944: The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743260090. 
  • Smith, Douglas V. (2006). Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way. U.S. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591147948. 
  • Wright, Derrick (2005). To the Far Side of Hell: The Battle for Peleliu, 1944. Fire Ant Books. ISBN 0817352813. 

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