_Marines of the 2d Division find some of the most difficult terrain
on Tinian as they move up towards the top of Mount Lasso, one of the
highest points on the island. Tinian, for the most part, was flat and
level, and was under cultivation._]
On the morning of 27 July, the “brush beating” drive to the south began
in earnest. General Schmidt’s plan for the first two days of the drive
alternated the main thrust between the two divisions. In the official
history of the operation, the tactic was likened to “a man elbowing his
way through the crowd,” swinging one arm and then the other.
The 2d Division got the heavier work on the 27th. XXIV Corps Artillery,
firing from southern Saipan, softened up suspected enemy positions
early in the morning and the division jumped off at 0730. It advanced
rapidly, harassed by sporadic small arms fire. By 1345 it had reached
its objective, gaining about 4,000 yards in just over six hours.
The 4th Division moved out late in the morning against “negligible
opposition,” reached its objective by noon and then called it a day. A
Japanese prisoner complained to his captors, “You couldn’t drop a stick
without bringing down artillery.”
The next morning, 28 July, the 4th got the “swinging elbow” job. It
was now evident that the remaining Japanese defenders were rapidly
retiring to the hills and caves along the southern coast. So opposition
to the Marine advance was virtually nil. The 4th moved more than two
miles in less than four hours with troops riding on half-tracks and
tanks. Jumping off again early in the afternoon in “blitz fashion,”
they overran the airfield at Gurguan Point, led by Major Richard K.
Schmidt’s 4th Tank Battalion, and quit for the day at 1730 after
gaining 7,300 yards--a little more than four miles. The 2d Division,
given light duty under the Schmidt plan, moved ahead a few hundred
yards, reached its objective in a couple of hours and dug in to await
another morning.
General Cates later recalled how he spurred on his 4th Division troops:
“I said, ‘Now, look here men, the [Hawaiian] island of Maui is waiting
for us. See those ships out there? The quicker you get this over with,
the quicker we’ll be back there.’ They almost ran over that island.”
On the 29th General Schmidt dropped the “elbowing” tactic and ordered
both divisions to move as far and as fast as “practical.” Opposition
had been so light that preparatory fires were canceled to save unneeded
withdrawals from the diminishing supplies of artillery shells left on
Saipan and to prevent “waste of naval gunfire on areas largely deserted
by the enemy.”
The 2d Marines on the eastern terrain ran into pockets of resistance on
a hill at Masalog Point; the 6th Marines encountered a 20-man Japanese
patrol that attempted to penetrate the regiment’s lines after dark.
The 25th took sniper fire as it moved through cane fields and later
in the day engaged in a heavy firefight with Japanese troops fighting
from dug-in positions. The Marines suffered several casualties and
one of their tanks was disabled in this fight. But the resistance
was overcome. The 24th Marines, operating near the west coast, ran
into Japanese positions that included a series of mutually supporting
bunkers. The 4th Tank Battalion reported that the area “had to be
overrun twice by tanks” before resistance ended.
By nightfall, more than half of Tinian island was in Marine hands.
Troops of the 4th Division could see Tinian Town from their foxholes.
This was good for morale but the night was marred by the weather and
enemy activity. A soaking rain fell through the night. Enemy mortar
tubes and artillery pieces fired incessantly, drawing counterbattery
fire from Marine gunners. There were probes in front of the 3d
Battalion, 25th Marines, silenced by mortar and small arms fire; 41
Japanese bodies were found in the area at daylight.
On 30 July--Jig plus 6--Tinian Town became the principal objective of
the 4th Division and, specifically, Colonel Franklin A. Hart’s 24th
Marines. At 0735 all of the division’s artillery battalions laid down
preparatory fires in front of the Marine lines. After 10 minutes,
the firing stopped and the troops moved out. At the same time, two
destroyers and cruisers lying in Sunharon Harbor off the Tinian Town
beaches began an hour-long bombardment of slopes around the town in
support of the Marines. The regiment’s 1st Battalion had advanced 600
yards when it came under heavy fire from caves along the coast north
of the town. With the help of tanks and armored amphibians operating
offshore this problem was overcome. Flamethrowing tanks worked over the
caves, allowing engineers to seal them up with demolition charges. In
one cave, a 75mm gun was destroyed.
The regiment entered the ruins of Tinian Town at 1420. Except for
one Japanese soldier who was eliminated on the spot, the town was
deserted. After searching through the rubble for snipers and documents,
the Marines drove on to the O-7 line objective south of town. Their
greatest peril was from mines and booby traps planted in beach areas
and roads.
[Illustration: _BGen Merritt A. Edson, (with binoculars) assistant
division commander of the 2d Marine Division, follows the progress of
his troops not far from the scene of action. Gen Edson was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his heroism on Guadalcanal._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 87824
]
As the 24th moved south, the 25th Marines were seizing Airfield Number
4 on the eastern outskirts of Tinian Town. The unfinished facility,
a prisoner revealed, was being rushed to completion to accommodate
relief planes promised by Tokyo. Only one aircraft was parked on the
crushed-coral air strip--a small, Zero-type fighter. Flying suits,
goggles, and other equipment were found in a supply room.
Enroute to the airfield, the 25th had taken light small arms fire and
while crossing the airstrip was mortared from positions to the south.
This was the 25th’s last action of the Tinian campaign. It went into
reserve and was relieved that night by units of the 23d Marines and the
1st Battalion, 8th Marines.
The 2d Division, operating to the east of the 4th, ran into occasional
opposition from machine gun positions and a 70mm howitzer. The 3d
Battalion, 2d Marines, had the roughest time. After silencing the
howitzer, it attacked across an open field and chased a Japanese
force into a large cave where, with the help of a flame-throwing
tank, 89 Japanese were killed and four machine guns were destroyed.
Soon afterward the battalion came under mortar fire. “It is beyond my
memory as to the number of casualties the 3d Battalion suffered at that
time,” the unit’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Walter F. Layer, later
reported. “I personally rendered first aid to two wounded Marines and
remember seeing six or seven Marines who were either wounded or killed
by that enemy mortar fire. Tanks and half-tracks ... took the enemy
under fire, destroying the enemy mortars.”
These were minor delays. The division reached its objective on time and
was dug in by 1830. About 80 percent of the island was now in American
hands.
_Final Days_
The Japanese were now cornered in a small area of southeastern Tinian.
The Marines “had advanced so rapidly that only four square miles of
the island remained for safe firing by ships not supporting battalions
[i.e., not with shore spotters],” according to a report on 30 July by
Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill, commander of the Northern Attack Force.
The Marine commander for the operation, Major General Schmidt, saw the
end in sight and late on the afternoon of 30 July issued an operations
order calling on the divisions to drive all the way to the southeast
coastline, seize all territory remaining in enemy hands and “annihilate
the opposing Japanese.”
This was not a trifling assignment; it produced the heaviest fighting
since the counterattack on the night of Jig Day. A Japanese warrant
officer captured on 29 July estimated that 500 troops of the _56th
Naval Guard Force_ and from 1,700 to 1,800 troops of the _50th
Infantry Regiment_ remained in the southeastern area in a battle-ready
condition. American intelligence estimates on 29 July, based on daily
reports from the divisions, reckoned that 3,000 Japanese soldiers and
sailors had been killed or taken prisoner up to that point. If that was
the case, two-thirds of the nearly 9,000 Japanese defenders were still
alive on the island.
The terrain occupied by the Japanese main force was rugged, difficult
to reach or traverse and well-suited for defense. Outside of Tinian
Town the gentle landscape ended, with the ground rising to a high
plateau 5,000 yards long and 2,000 yards wide, with altitudes higher
than 500 feet. The plateau was rocky and covered with thick brush.
There were many caves. Along the east coast, the cliff walls rose
steeply and appeared impossible to scale. The approaches to the plateau
were blocked by many cliffs of this sort as well as by jungle growth. A
road in the center of the plateau, leading to its top, was reported by
a prisoner to be mined. The plateau was the enemy’s last redoubt.
[Illustration: _As a Navy corpsman administers a bottle of plasma to
a wounded Marine, the stretcher bearers wait patiently to carry him
on board a landing craft which will evacuate him to a hospital ship
offshore, where he will be given full treatment._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 87434
]
It became the object of the most intense bombardments any Japanese
force had yet experienced to date in World War II. Marine artillery
regiments on the island and the XXIV Corps Artillery on southern Saipan
fired throughout the night of 30-31 July on the wooded clifflines the
Marines would face during their assault. At 0600, the battleships
_Tennessee_ and _California_, the heavy cruiser _Louisville_, and the
light cruisers _Montpelier_ and _Birmingham_ began the first of two
sustained bombardments that morning. They fired for 75 minutes, then
halted to allow a 40-minute strike on the plateau by 126 P-47s, North
American Mitchell B-25 bombers, and Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers
from the escort carrier _Kitkun Bay_. The planes dropped 69 tons of
explosives before the offshore gunfire resumed for another 35 minutes.
All told, the battleships and cruisers fired approximately 615 tons of
shells at their targets. Artillerymen of the 10th Marines fired about
5,000 rounds during the night; 14th Marines gunners fired 2,000. The
effect, one prisoner said, was “almost unbearable.”
[Illustration: