_by Captain John C. Chapin, USMCR (Ret)_
It was to be a brutal day. At first light on 15 June 1944, the Navy
fire support ships of the task force lying off Saipan Island increased
their previous days’ preparatory fires involving all calibers of
weapons. At 0542, Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner ordered, “Land the
landing force.” Around 0700, the landing ships, tank (LSTs) moved to
within approximately 1,250 yards behind the line of departure. Troops
in the LSTs began debarking from them in landing vehicles, tracked
(LVTs). Control vessels containing Navy and Marine personnel with their
radio gear took their positions displaying flags indicating which beach
approaches they controlled.
Admiral Turner delayed H-hour from 0830 to 0840 to give the “boat
waves” additional time to get into position. Then the first wave headed
full speed toward the beaches. The Japanese waited patiently, ready to
make the assault units pay a heavy price.
The first assault wave contained armored amphibian tractors (LVT[A]s)
with their 75mm guns firing rapidly. They were accompanied by light
gunboats firing 4.5-inch rockets, 20mm guns, and 40mm guns. The LVTs
could negotiate the reef, but the rest could not and were forced to
turn back until a passageway through the reef could be discovered.
Earlier, at 0600, further north, a feint landing was conducted off
Tanapag harbor by part of the 2d Marines in conjunction with the 1st
Battalion, 29th Marines, and the 24th Marines. The Japanese were not
really fooled and did not rush reinforcements to that area, but it did
tie up at least one enemy regiment.
When the LVT(A)s and troop-carrying LVTs reached the reef, it seemed
to explode. In every direction and in the water beyond on the way to
the beaches, great geysers of water rose with artillery and mortar
shells exploding. Small-arms fire, rifles, and machine guns joined the
mounting crescendo. The LVTs ground ashore.
Confusion on the beaches, particularly in the 2d Marine Division area,
was compounded by the strength of a northerly current flow which caused
the assault battalions of the 6th and 8th Marines to land about 400
yards too far north. This caused a gap to widen between the 2d and
4th Marine Divisions. As Colonel Robert E. Hogaboom, the operations
officer of the Expeditionary Troops commented: “The opposition
consisted primarily of artillery and mortar fire from weapons placed
in well-deployed positions and previously registered to cover the
beach areas, as well as fire from small arms, automatic weapons, and
anti-boat guns sited to cover the approaches to and the immediate
landing beaches.”
[Illustration: PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS]
As a result, five of the 2d Marine Division assault unit commanders
were soon wounded in the two battalions of the 6th Marines (on the
far left), and in the two battalions of the 8th Marines. With Afetan
Point in the middle spitting deadly enfilade fire to the left and to
the right, the next units across the gap were two battalions of the
23d Marines and, finally, on the far right, two battalions of the 25th
Marines.
Although the original plan had been for the assault troops to ride
their LVTs all the way to the O-1 (first objective) line, the deluge of
Japanese fire and natural obstacles prevented this. A few units in the
center of the 4th Division made it, but fierce enemy resistance pinned
down the right and left flanks. The two divisions were unable to make
direct contact.
[Illustration: “_D-Day at Saipan_”
Watercolor by SSgt John Fabion in Marine Corps Art Collection
]
A first lieutenant in the 3d Battalion, 24th Marines, John C. Chapin,
later remembered vividly the extraordinary scene on the beach when he
came ashore on D-Day:
All around us was the chaotic debris of bitter combat: Jap and
Marine bodies lying in mangled and grotesque positions; blasted
and burnt-out pillboxes; the burning wrecks of LVTs that had been
knocked out by Jap high velocity fire; the acrid smell of high
explosives; the shattered trees; and the churned-up sand littered
with discarded equipment.
When his company moved inland a short distance, it quickly experienced
the frightening precision of the pre-registered Japanese artillery fire:
Suddenly, WHAM! A shell hit right on top of us! I was too surprised
to think, but instinctively all of us hit the deck and began to
spread out. Then the shells really began to pour down on us: ahead,
behind, on both sides, and right in our midst. They would come
rocketing down with a freight-train roar and then explode with a
deafening cataclysm that is beyond description.
It finally dawned on me that the first shell bursts we’d heard had
been ranging shots, and now that the Japs were “zeroed in” on us,
we were caught in a full-fledged barrage. The fire was hitting us
with pin-point accuracy, and it was not hard to see why--towering
1500 feet above us was Mt. Tapotchau, with Jap observation posts
honeycombing its crest.
[Illustration: D-DAY AT SAIPAN