(1/5) Pacific The Lost Evidence Saipan Episode 5 World War II

World War II SUBSCRIBE TO EXCELLENT WORLD WAR II VIDEOS
Seven American battleships and 11 destroyers shelled Saipan and Tinian for 2 days before the landings, firing 15,000 16-inch and 5-inch shells at the islands along with 165,000 other shells of other caliber. To even begin to comprehend the magnitude of this onslaught, one needs to realize that a single 16-inch round weighs slightly more than a Volkswagen Beetle, besides being packed with high explosives. On the second day of the bombardment, this force was joined by 8 more battleships, 6 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers. The islands were ringed by American warships with their guns blazing. Shells rained down on the island, its villages, inhabitants, and defenders, gouging huge craters in the sand and coral. The earth trembled under the tremendous explosions of naval bombardment and simultaneous air attacks.

The main invasion force landed along 4 miles of beach at Chalan Kanoa. Twenty-eight U. S. tanks were destroyed the first day alone. The Japanese positioned colored flags in the lagoon to mark the range of the landing force and to register their howitzers on the invaders from locations behind Mount Fina Susu, and their shell fire rained down on the advancing American force every 15 seconds in a deadly cauldron of exploding steel. By nightfall of the first day, the Second Marine Division had sustained 2,000 casualties. The fighting continued until July 9th, when organized resistance on Saipan ceased. When the fighting ended, American losses on Saipan were double those suffered on Guadalcanal. Of the 71,034 U. S. troops landed on Saipan, 3,100 were killed, 13,100 wounded or missing in action. Out of the 31,629 Japanese on Saipan, approximately 29,500 died as a result of the fighting, and only 2,100 prisoners survived. Fighting between the Japanese and the Americans was by no means completely mechanized; while ships, aircraft, artillery, and tanks inflicted the largest amount of damage to the combatants, a great deal of the fighting was hand-to-hand. Besides machine guns, flame throwers, rifles, and pistols, deadly skirmishes were fought with bayonets, swords, bamboo spears, clubs, stones and fists.

The ratio of battle dead was 9.5:1 during the 24 days of fighting. Place names given the rugged Saipan terrain such as Death Valley, Purple Heart Ridge and Harakiri Gulch testified to the bitter fighting. One of the most lamentable events of the battle for Saipan involved the mass suicide of hundreds of families, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the high cliffs at the island's northernmost point. This tragic event could not be stopped, despite efforts by Americans and indigenous Saipanese using loudspeakers to try to convince the Japanese that surrender would be. (Navy Site Online)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• World
• War
• II
• Saipan
• U.S.
• Troops
• American
• Battleships
• Machine
• Guns
• Flame
• Throwers
• Japanese
• Marine
• Corps
• Division
• Aircraft
• Artillery
• Tanks
• Warships

[jrask]

My great uncle Marvin was lost in this war. What horror. He was my age when he died, what a life of luxury I live in today. God bless those men, and God bless America.

[shelayne4]

My Father received a Purple Heart in this battle. Thanks for this footage, I appreciate you posting.

[chesterdgreat91]

The Americans were very lucky during this time because the PROJECT DAIMOS AND VOLTES V was not yet made.. ^_^ V.. PEACE SIR..!!

[kavek74]

@sheemsheem you a fucking idiot...

[sheemsheem]

Luckily Japan got nuked, or there would have been alot more deaths in XDay

[tony1981ization]

it was the marines and new york national guards that hit saipan...bad ass

[SWI0001]

@xCh34pShOtx these were the japanese. they had suffered a case of a "victory disease" thinking that they were unbeatable. I reckon that it has something to do with some ancient folklore; just like the Kami Kaze word

"Divine Wind"

[TheSupersoldier1234]

@jrask YEs but that was back in the day when US was good but no it's just war for oil but thank obama that he pulls the troops from Iraq

[Marzaq87]

@SSSDiaz7 wise words! im from sweden we were not even affected by the war but the consequenses of it was felt as much here as any other country in europe. And it just angers me that no one seems to care about history saying its useless, and on another hand the same people says we should work to prevent war instead of looking at the past....well how can we prevent anything from happening again if no one remembers what to prevent...All honour to the allied soldiers who fought against fascism

[erikinhawaii]

I lived on Saipan for 2 years- to this day people still find 500lbs unexploded bombs in the jungle (usually from clearing area for new houses) and hand grenades which I actually found one while weed whacking behind our rented place. This same story pretty much applies to Guam as well- bombs are still a threat to local construction. Kind of ironic that now Japan bombs these islands with tourist !

[xCh34pShOtx]

So why would they banzai charge when they could shoot instead?... lol makes no sense

[PatsGrandson]

@HelenaXVI

No that Saipan would be one of the Islands where the IJA/IJN convinced the Japanese people living there to commit suicide because the Americans would rape them and eat babies. Buncha jolly tricksters those Japanese Officers.