Original subtitles

NARRATOR: By 1944, the American war machine

is at full throttle.

They are pushing Japan back across the pacific,

island by island.

But the next island is different - Saipan.

As they hit the beach,

man: I could see the bullets striking the water.

NARRATOR: And fly into fire.

MAN: A zero zoomed right in front of me.

NARRATOR: Relive an historic naval battle

with color combat footage

and uncover a simmering rivalry that Saipan blows wide open.

Hear the voices and feel the fight.

MAN: He said, by this time tomorrow,

some of you won't be here.

♫ ♫

Brought to you by Sailor420 !!! Hope you enjoy the film !!!

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: Hawaii, January 1944.

The attack on Pearl harbor was two years ago.

After a rough start to the pacific war,

america is finding its footing.

Instead of a battleground, Hawaii is now a playground

for troops on leave.

The fighting seems very far away.

But the war's leaders are right here in Pearl harbor,

hotly debating the competing strategies

of Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas Macarthur.

MacArthur wants to focus the action in his command

- the southwest pacific.

Nimitz wants to push up his territory, the central pacific,

with an island-hopping campaign of amphibious assaults.

The Gilberts were a disaster.

The marshalls went better.

The next step is the Marianas, including Saipan.

The Marianas are a far larger and more distant target.

Invading would be a logistical nightmare

and give island-hopping an extraordinary test.

Nimitz is confident.

MacArthur is skeptical.

He thinks island hopping is inefficient and bloody.

But one airplane's potential tips the scale.

NEWS READER: When the workers reported for the first time,

few of them guessed the exact nature

of what they were building.

They were building the mightiest aircraft in history.

NARRATOR: A new war plane is in production

- the boeing b-29.

It will be the post powerful bomber yet

with the greatest range.

If Nimitz can take the Marianas

from there the b-29 could reach Tokyo.

If engineers can get it to fly.

MAN: Early on, we had engine problems.

We had lots of problems.

NARRATOR: At a training ground in Kansas,

crews handpicked to fly b-29s keep waiting

for their airplanes to show up.

MAN: We were training in b-17s, and we kept saying,

where is this big baby that we volunteered for?

NARRATOR: The military wants it fast,

but rushing a new weapon to war can backfire.

One test flight crashes in the middle of Seattle

killing more than 30.

By the time america decides to invade the Marianas,

100 b-29s have been delivered, but only 15 are airworthy.

For the Marianas to be worth the pain,

this airplane would have to keep its promise.

Before this war, the Marianas already endured centuries

of imperial power struggles.

The succession of rulers included Spain, Germany,

america and now Japan.

The native chamorro people suffered through them all.

Now, another invasion force is on its way.

NEWS READER: Toward the end of may,

the 27th infantry division in Hawaii

was getting ready to sail for Saipan.

NARRATOR: The ports of Hawaii are bursting at the seams.

Every battle begins on these docks.

From army troops to marine hardware,

the burden to carry it all is on the Navy.

But they've never supported an invasion as far as Saipan.

It's a mathematical and logistical war unto itself.

110 ships, loaded to the limit.

32 days of food rations for about 128,000 troops.

20 days of ammunition, fuel and oil.

Amphibious assault vehicles and heavy artillery.

In all, 75,000 tons of cargo needs to fit somewhere.

Every nook and cranny is packed with something or someone.

Marines like Charles Pase are apprehensive

about leaving Hawaii in the rear view mirror.

MAN: It was an enjoyable place.

We hated to leave.

In fact, we doubly hated to leave

because we had a pretty fair idea where we were going.

NARRATOR: On mainland Asia, the Japanese

are also struggling to wage war over great distances.

In China, they set hillsides ablaze with incendiary bombs,

just to spread fear.

In Burma, allied forces fight back.

Americans give jeeps to the British and Chinese.

And drop supplies to local fighters.

Crates of weapons end up on the backs of elephants

for delivery into the jungle.

By 1944, Japan is backpedaling.

Burmese guerillas march pows into captivity,

symbolic of Japan's slipping foothold on mainland Asia.

Out in the pacific, they race to fortify

their island colonies.

Emperor hirohito knows what's at stake.

He delivers a message to his troops.

MAN: If Saipan is lost, air raids on Tokyo

will take place often.

You absolutely must hold Saipan.

NARRATOR: By June 14th, some 32,000 Japanese

are digging in to defend it.

An Admiral predicts the attack could come within a month.

The Americans will land the very next day.

NEWS READER: Convoys were nearing Saipan.

These men would be crawling through brush and cane fields,

fighting for every foot of Japanese ground.

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: As the force approaches Saipan,

they know amphibious assaults are a work in progress.

The learning curve is littered with dead marines.

Roy roush remembers the mood as solemn.

MAN: The day before we landed, our company commander

shook hands with every man and talked to him for a moment.

He wished every one of us the best of luck and said,

unfortunately I know by this time tomorrow,

some of you won't be here.

♫ ♫

(explosion booming)

NARRATOR: On the morning of d-day,

the Navy rains destruction on Saipan.

(explosion booming)

Firing from afar, they sacrifice accuracy for sheer volume.

(explosion booming)

Then 150 carrier planes take the battle up close.

Braving return fire, they pound the beaches

to soften them up for the landing.

(explosion booming)

The plan calls for the first wave of troops

to land at 0830, with many waves to follow.

NEWS READER: This was the big one.

No one spoke, every man was tense, but ready.

NARRATOR: They're going in.

Previous island invasions caused heavy casualties

so they try a new approach.

Heavily-armed amphibious tanks lead the way

with troop tractors following close behind.

They hope the tanks can blast their way inland

so troops don't have to get out on the exposed beach.

Nobody wants marines wading ashore

in blood-stained waters like they had at tarawa.

But the enemy learned lessons from the same battle.

Japanese film reveals more elaborate pillboxes

with clear sight lines to the invaders.

They've even planted distance flags in the water.

The entire lagoon is pre-sighted.

Americans are right in their cross hairs.

(explosion booming)

Colonel James Donovan is commanding one

of the landing craft, trailing a tank

that was supposed to provide cover.

MAN: I could see the bullets striking the water

right in front of us.

I told the men to get down as low as they could.

Next thing, my lieutenant was hit in his left shoulder.

He looked down to his shoulder

and his left eye was shot out.

The man standing next to me had his head knocked off

by an anti-tank round.

NARRATOR: The leading tanks can't stop

the volley of incoming shells.

Behind them, men are getting cut into pieces.

Donovan decides it's better to let the survivors out

to fend for themselves on the beach.

MAN: We landed at the water's edge and we all climbed

out of that tractor.

It was a bloody mess back there.

NARRATOR: Chaos unfolds as the men scramble for cover.

Instead of leapfrogging the beach as planned,

they're stuck on it.

MAN: We ran right into the battalions

that landed ahead of us and they hadn't gone very far.

NARRATOR: One battalion fights for an hour

and advances only 12 yards past the beach.

Many just have to crouch in the sand

and keep their heads down.

More waves of troops wait offshore to join the fight.

They see boats coming back with wounded or worse.

MAN: One of them just had a pile of hands and feet

and parts of guys, about five feet high.

NARRATOR: Instead of quickly slicing their way inland,

it's a slow, bloody push.

MAN: It got pretty noisy.

The smoke drifting around.

A mess of dead bodies and abandoned equipment.

(explosion booming)

It was an eerie scene out there.

NARRATOR: D-day on Saipan is a rough start,

but the marines gain their first foothold.

By day's end, they secure six miles of beach,

up to a half mile inland, about two thirds of their goal.

June 15th is full of hits and misses,

trial and error,

bravery and blunders.

It's a very long day.

And for some, their last.

There are 2,000 dead and injured.

The marines have made their first sacrifices on Saipan.

The Navy is next.

As night falls on d-day, an American sub

spies a large armada on the way from the philippine sea.

The Japanese are coming to wrestle the island

back from the invaders.

America decides to go meet them head on.

Sailors get an emergency briefing

- they're heading back out to sea.

First, they dump ashore all the supplies they can

in short order.

Ground forces squabble over what's left.

They steal each other's supplies

in what they call midnight requisitions.

Marines take 33 army trucks and won't give them back.

On land, it's logistical chaos.

At sea, it's an uneasy calm.

Playing hide and seek with aircraft carriers

is a new kind of warfare.

With longer-range planes, the Japanese may strike first.

Ed harrell is game to chase them anyway.

MAN: We didn't know what all was going to take place,

but we didn't run from them.

Never.

NARRATOR: The battle of the philippine sea

will be the biggest carrier battle in naval history,

if the fleets can find each other.

American radar picks up incoming planes.

The Japanese have found them.

(sirens blaring)

Carriers scramble their f6f hellcats to meet them.

♫ ♫

The two massive navies are still hundreds of miles apart.

So it comes down to one pilot against another,

in white-knuckle, split-second dogfights.

(explosion booming)

(gun firing)

American ships blast away from below.

(gun firing)

Wallace Brunton is onboard the USS Callahan - a destroyer.

MAN: We knew they weren't trying to bomb destroyers.

They were after the carriers.

All we had to do was shoot at them.

(explosion booming)

NARRATOR: Japan made its planes lighter

by shedding heavy armor.

They gained range, but lost muscle.

In aerial fistfights, they simply can't take a punch.

(explosion booming)

American hellcats shoot down over 20 planes

from the first attack wave.

(gun firing)

Naval anti-aircraft fire hit a dozen more.

(explosion booming)

One Japanese bomber scores a hit

on the battleship South Dakota.

(explosion booming)

24 sailors are killed under a halo of smoke.

Then the second attack wave comes in.

128 planes.

Navy pilot George Kirk joins the fray in his hellcat.

MAN: A zero came and zoomed right in front of me.

He was chasing another hellcat.

We crossed and I was able to light him up.

I saved that other guy.

NARRATOR: This attack wave fares

even worse than the first.

They hit no ships at all and many end up in the sea.

(explosion booming)

By the time the fourth Japanese wave comes in,

they are scattered and disorganized.

Some don't even find the American fleet.

MAN: They ran out of good pilots.

They didn't teach those guys to land.

They just told them to get out there and kill you.

NARRATOR: Kirk gets close enough

to look right into an enemy cockpit.

MAN: The pilot was just staring straight ahead.

Like a little kid, just scared to death.

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: It's a complete rout.

Americans nickname it the Great Marianas Turkey shoot.

But they still don't know where enemy planes

are coming from.

The Japanese carrier fleet remains beyond American eyes.

The chance to strike a killer blow

appears to be sinking with the sun.

The next morning, Americans are hell bent

on finding the enemy fleet.

Scout planes hunt over the open seas all day, without luck.

They fear the enemy has retreated.

Then at 4:00 P.M., they find the Japanese 275 miles away.

Sailors get word to scramble their planes.

Ed harrell remembers the adrenaline rush.

MAN: It was like you were hollering at a football game

because we knew we were going after them.

NARRATOR: In the low afternoon light,

200 hellcats take off in just 20 minutes.

This might be their last chance to strike the Japanese Navy.

But it's a risky decision.

The enemy fleet is too far for the shorter-range hellcats

to safely make round trip.

And it's too late to return in daylight.

MAN: There were hundreds of planes out there.

We didn't have any experience at all night flying.

NARRATOR: At dusk, American pilots find the fleet.

There isn't much time.

Some of the smaller ships can move at 40 knots,

a tricky target.

Bigger ships attract more attention.

(guns firing)

The biggest prize finally comes into view.

A carrier.

(explosion booming)

From above, it appears to be a solid hit.

Japanese film shows the chaos unfolding below.

♫ ♫

Gunners try to repel the Americans.

The carrier deck is so damaged,

Japanese pilots can't land on it.

Instead, they have to ditch in the water.

♫ ♫

MAN: The sea was covered with Japanese sailors

hanging on for life with no thought that anyone

would ever pick them up.

There were no ships left to rescue them.

NARRATOR: The Japanese Navy is fighting for its life.

With bombs from above and torpedoes from below,

Americans take out five ships, including a carrier.

Some will limp away.

Others are simply blown away.

(explosion booming)

There's no time to celebrate.

They have to fly back in the dark.

Many crash land into the ocean,

hoping for rescue the next day.

Others make it back and risk landing

a crippled plane at night.

(crash thudding)

Over both days, Americans lose 100 planes and 50 men.

But Japanese losses are at least four times worse.

For them, it's a crushing setback

and they won't fully recover.

It's a decisive American victory.

Since the battle of Midway two years earlier,

they have gained the upper hand in the wide-open seas.

But the tiny islands continue to give them fits.

Once ashore on Saipan, one of the first objectives

is aslito airfield.

It's a potential base for the b-29

so they expect heavy defenses.

The route to the airfield is through thick fields

of Saipan's principal crop.

MAN: There were thousands of acres

of sugar cane fields, very dense and about head high.

They provided ideal cover for snipers

or infiltrating Japanese.

(explosion booming)

NARRATOR: Hidden within the maze of cane

and, on the ridge above, Japanese ambush the Americans.

(explosion booming)

They're pinned down for hours in the fields.

Finally, they take to burning their way through,

not knowing who might be hiding just yards away.

Another company gets hung up in a village,

trying to discern soldier from civilian.

The solid line of advance breaks down

and American missteps make matters worse.

Army and marine units are fighting side by side

and the chain of command gets confusing.

One officer keeps calling headquarters

to find out who he's working for.

A combat team launches an attack at 0730,

not hearing they were supposed to wait until 0930.

And one entire regiment is stuck

without communications equipment.

It never got off the ship before it pulled out

for the naval battle.

With small arms, field artillery,

tank blasts and fire,

Americans blast away through the dangerous cane fields

and approach an airfield that promises

even stiffer resistance.

♫ ♫

But the next day, the enemy seems to have disappeared.

Aslito airfield is abandoned.

The hulking remnants of bombed out Japanese aircraft

litter the tarmac.

Troops find exactly one Japanese soldier,

hiding in the control tower.

Otherwise, they are gone.

This airfield is one of the key prizes

of the whole island chain.

Americans will soon prepare it for the b-29.

Why the Japanese left it for the taking is a mystery.

Maybe American bombs made them flee?

Or maybe they found a better place to fight?

Moving northward, Americans approach mount tapotchau,

Saipan's tallest peak.

If they want the island, they'll have to take

its highest ground.

They form a line to push around and over it.

Marine units have either side and the 27th army division

leads the push up the middle.

NEWS READER: The 27th set up a command post

and established contact with the marines

to coordinate an attack on mount tapotchau.

NARRATOR: In charge of the 27th is general Ralph Smith,

a quiet, cerebral presence on the battlefield.

His path is dictated by geography through a valley,

framed on one side by the mountain's cliffs

and the other by a high ridge line.

(explosion booming)

As the action gets thick, army units under Ralph Smith

take a pounding in the middle and don't advance as fast

as the marines on either side.

At times, they are pinned down flat for hours

and can't even lift their heads.

Many are forced to retreat.

On the flanks, the marines begin to question

the army's tactics.

MAN: We knew what the hell

was going on with the 27th division.

They just up and ran back, leaving us exposed.

NARRATOR: Ralph Smith orders the 27th to get going.

MAN: Advance of 50 yards in one and a half hours

is most unsatisfactory.

Start moving at once.

NARRATOR: Responding to the pressure,

one commander pulls up his unit

and runs them headlong up the valley.

50 yards later, they hit a downpour of lead.

(explosion booming)

The commander is shot in the head and killed.

The army nicknames their surroundings,

Death Valley and Purple Heart Ridge.

Japanese are nested up on either side of the valley.

Approaching from the south, American artillery

has no clear shot.

Army troops have to advance with little cover.

For the Japanese, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

MAN: We couldn't fathom where in the hell

they were at.

We knew if a guy stood up, he'd get popped.

NARRATOR: Marine general Holland Smith is overseeing

the entire invasion force on Saipan.

He's a brash bulldog of a man, in stark contrast

to the quieter Ralph Smith of the army.

When he realizes the 27th is lagging behind the marines

by almost a mile, he sends Ralph Smith a clear message.

MAN: Commanding general is highly displeased

with the failure of the 27th division

advance and seize objectives as ordered.

NARRATOR: Privately, Holland Smith questions

the army's stomach for combat.

MAN: The 27th division won't fight and Ralph Smith

will not make them fight.

NARRATOR: It all comes to a head on June 24th.

Holland Smith relieves Ralph Smith of his command.

Tommy Thompson witnesses the encounter

while standing guard nearby.

MAN: He grabbed him by the shirt, backed him up

against the tent pole, and said,

you son of a bitch, get the hell off this island.

You're going back to Hawaii.

NARRATOR: Army brass retaliates.

One calls Holland Smith prejudiced against the army.

Another wants him out of the pacific.

Even Ralph Smith sounds off.

MAN: No army combat troops should ever again

be permitted to serve under Holland m. Smith.

NARRATOR: The tension between all three services

spills out into the open.

Newspapers pounce on it and the rivalry goes public.

Bickering reaches all the way up to Admiral Nimitz.

But among the ground troops, the damage is done.

There is finger pointing.

Distrust.

And the questioning of one's guts.

Army grunts take it personally

as if they haven't been fighting hard enough.

America's decision to push up the central pacific

puts all the pressure on distant island warfare.

So far, the pressure is showing.

MAN: Our living conditions were crude.

Your shaving kit was your steel helmet.

We had trench latrines.

One thing we didn't have was the terrible weather

they had in england.

NARRATOR: For most Americans,

Saipan is their first taste of the tropics.

The heat and humidity can be oppressive.

When allowed to pull back from the front,

troops try to reset both mind and body.

MAN: We hadn't had a bath in a month.

You pulled off your socks and most of your skin came off.

NARRATOR: Any chance to get halfway clean is a godsend.

Privacy, or no privacy.

There's also do-it-yourself laundry.

MAN: Clothes were so dirty

they'd stand up by themselves.

NARRATOR: With only one uniform, they make do.

Any food that is not canned field rations is another treat.

It's not home cooking, but it's still worth the wait.

MAN: They would make a five pound

can of coffee in a barrel.

It was the prettiest foam you ever saw.

Some of the best cup of coffee I ever had in my life

was on that island.

NARRATOR: Downtime gives the men a chance

to swap stories and compare battle souvenirs.

Jack lent even commandeers a Japanese bike

to visit some buddies in another unit.

MAN: They said, how in the world did you get up here?

I said I rode right up that main road.

They said, we haven't captured it yet.

I went right through the Japanese lines on a bicycle.

I think I went back at 90 miles an hour.

NARRATOR: Rest also offers a rare chance to reflect.

Men of the cloth like Vernon Hanks

feel especially valuable serving troops in distress.

MAN: I might give the sacrament to 500 men

in a short length of time.

Those boys were really appreciative.

NARRATOR: But nothing is quite as valuable

as a letter from home.

Anything that takes their minds off the war is welcome.

But then it's time to go back and do the job.

There's a lot of unfinished business

back on mount tapotchau.

The battle around mount tapotchau is slow and bloody,

but this high ground is key to the American advance.

With no good angle for support artillery,

troops will have to march up Purple Heart Ridge

and take out the Japanese with small arms, mortars,

machine guns and grenades.

It's an uphill battle in every way.

One company leaves at sunrise and loses 12 men before 0930.

Joe brown is trying to carry the wounded off the slope

when enemy fire catches up with him.

MAN: They opened up on us and most of us dove off.

We had to drop the stretcher cases and they killed them.

This boy, t.T. Moore out of Dallas, sat down on his knees

and said, boy, that was a close one.

Then a machine gun opened up and hit him in the rear

and a bullet came out his chest.

NARRATOR: With the hidden Japanese so hard to engage,

Americans resort to throwing fire.

(fire roaring)

MAN: We heard the moaning and groaning.

You could smell the dead.

The odor kept getting stronger and stronger.

NARRATOR: For the first time,

Americans deploy flame-throwing tanks.

Here, a lone Japanese soldier runs for his life.

Slowly and at high cost, Americans take

Purple Heart Ridge,

allowing artillery to blast across Death Valley

at cave emplacements on the face of mount tapotchau.

(explosion booming)

10 days after landing, Americans take the peak.

General Holland Smith climbs up himself,

pointing out the strategic value of a mountain

that cost so much blood - 4,000 casualties.

Much of it was spilled by the army's 27th division,

men Holland Smith had dismissed as ineffective.

Fighting downhill should be a welcome relief.

There are wounds to heal, both physical and operational.

But they aren't the only ones suffering on Saipan.

NEWS READER: Thousands of natives and their children

caught in the advance of our troops

streamed through designated safety zones

to the internment camps.

NARRATOR: Whatever armies call a theater of war,

there are people who call it home.

Saipan's 25,000 residents are stuck

in a self-contained war zone.

Troops funnel as many as possible into camps.

Some of them are Koreans, who have lived

under Japanese rule for decades and treated

as little more than slaves.

Many are being killed alongside the Japanese

because Americans can't easily tell them apart.

The unfolding tragedy gets the attention of Admiral Nimitz.

He invites a Korean-American minister from Honolulu,

father Noah Cho, to accompany the marines.

On Saipan, he persuades hundreds of Koreans to come out

of hiding and accept the invaders as friends,

even leading three cheers for the Americans.

CROWD: Yay!

Yay!

Yay!

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: Not all civilians are convinced.

Japanese propaganda warned of marauding Americans

prone to rape, torture and murder.

Even as troops try to lure them out with a helping hand,

some cannot bring themselves to accept it.

MAN: You weren't supposed to shoot them.

You would hold up this leaflet.

A lot of them were saved that way.

But you had to be careful, too.

A lot of them were soldiers.

NARRATOR: When they aren't sure who's hiding inside,

all bets are off.

If they won't come out, Americans won't go in.

(explosion booming)

NEWS READER: This was garapan.

Once a clean, tidy tropical town,

that our bombardment had now reduced to a pile of rubble.

NARRATOR: Garapan was a modern town of 14,000.

The proud Japanese had called it

the Tokyo of the south seas.

Now, there is little left to fight over.

But ground troops still have to secure it.

This is the first major street fight

of the island-hopping campaign.

The remnants and rubble are as tough to fight

through as a mountain full of caves.

It takes four days to win.

MAN: When we went through garapan, this really modern

little city just disappeared.

The remains had to be bulldozed into the sea.

NARRATOR: If this is the fate

of the Tokyo of the south seas,

Japan surely fears for Tokyo itself.

After the devastating losses around mount tapotchau,

Americans push northward with relative ease.

Most Japanese fight to the death.

But this soldier defies the norm and surrenders.

Captured pows reveal they can barely

organize themselves anymore.

Japanese commanders relay the situation to superiors.

MAN: Forces are completely wiped out.

No fighting strength can be expected of them.

NARRATOR: There are few units left intact.

Soldiers are in improvised groups,

bound together only by circumstance.

They have little water.

Many have been subsisting on sugar cane.

But still, they fight to the end.

The final days on Saipan will shock

even the most hardened soldier.

12 days after landing,

Americans move into the northern end of the island.

Thousands of Japanese soldiers remain alive,

desperate, but still deadly.

Pockets of resistance are scattered but fierce.

It can take days to untie a single, well-placed

underground knot with one brutal blow.

Americans rely on overwhelming firepower.

And sometimes, pure fire.

There is still bad blood between the services.

The army asks the marines for some tanks.

They refuse.

There are still military mix-ups.

Ammunition is getting low.

Planners had used the smaller Marshall and Gilbert islands

to predict the needs for Saipan.

But Saipan has been anything but predictable.

It's taking more than three weeks to win.

Even as the northern coast comes into view,

it's not coming easy.

And the human cost, on both sides, is about to skyrocket.

Civilians on Saipan face a final, confusing choice.

Surrender yourself or kill yourself.

Emperor hirohito encourages suicide over capture.

MAN: They had been pretty thoroughly brainwashed.

They were scared to death.

NARRATOR: When the war squeezes remaining citizens

to the water's edge, an unthinkable tragedy unfolds.

MAN: That cliff was about 200 feet down to the rocks.

One woman had a little boy and she just flung him out.

Then, she jumped.

NARRATOR: Hundreds take their own lives

by jumping,

by grenade,

by knife.

MAN: I wish I couldn't see it anymore.

But I still can.

NARRATOR: Survivors cling to a thread of hope

- of life beyond war.

The final days on Saipan

are like picking through a minefield.

Hidden groups of Japanese, even lone soldiers,

make every step uncertain.

And they have one more surprise in store.

(bugle blaring)

MAN: Would you believe a Japanese jumped out

and played charge on a bugle?

Guys poked their heads up out of their foxholes.

Somebody shot him and the battle was on.

(men cheering)

NARRATOR: Some 3,000 Japanese come out of hiding

and race directly at the Americans in a banzai charge

- one of the last forms of honorable suicide.

It's the biggest banzai attack of the pacific war.

Major Edward McCarthy is one of the few officers

to survive it.

MAN: We were in the foxholes

and the japs ran right over us.

It was like a stampede in the old wild west movies.

If you shot one, five more would take his place.

NARRATOR: Men scramble to defend themselves

with no sense of clear battle lines.

Some American positions are completely overrun.

MAN: This little jap came up with that bayonet

and it went in my arm between the bones.

NARRATOR: It takes 24 hours for the Japanese to exhaust

their final attack in this burst of blood.

It's nothing short of a massacre.

Many die clutching the only crude weapons they have left.

It's their last revenge on the invading force.

Almost 1,000 Americans are killed or wounded

in this final offensive purge.

Surely, some of them were on Saipan from the start

and upon seeing the northern coast,

thought they were almost home.

On July 12th, Americans declare victory

in the battle for Saipan.

General Holland Smith leads the raising of the flag.

But more somber ceremonies take place all over the island.

(bugle blaring)

Americans suffer almost 3,500 dead

and more than 10,000 wounded.

This is a full 20% of the invasion force,

about the same percentage as the battle of tarawa

the previous fall.

Admiral Nimitz realizes that island hopping

isn't getting any easier.

MAN: The enemy met the assault

with pointless bravery, inhuman tenacity

and the will to lose hard.

NARRATOR: Japan loses the island, but learns a lesson.

The way to prolong the American advance

is to inflict lasting pain.

They are beginning to redefine the pacific war.

The United States isn't happy with how this battle unfolded.

The services continue to blame each other

for Saipan's errors.

They have little time to regroup.

The battle for two more islands in the Marianas

is about to begin - Tinian and Guam.

If successful, they will have airfields

within bombing range of Tokyo,

if the b29 is ready.

The Japanese empire is beginning to crack.

But after their brave defense of Saipan,

no one expects it to shatter.