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

A U.S. amphibious tractor loaded with Marines approaches Tinian during the U.S. landings on that island
DateJune – November, 1944
LocationMariana and Palau Islands, Pacific Ocean
Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
US flag 48 stars 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.

Forager

Drawing of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign

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 Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.

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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 0-933852-41-X. 
  • 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 0-275-94646-0. 
  • 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 0-394-56588-6. 
  • 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 1-84176-512-0. 
  • Sloan, Bill (2005). Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944: The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6009-0. 
  • Smith, Douglas V. (2006). Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way. U.S. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-794-8. 
  • Wright, Derrick (2005). To the Far Side of Hell: The Battle for Peleliu, 1944. Fire Ant Books. ISBN 0-8173-5281-3. 

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The original article can be found at Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the edit history here.
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