Battle of Saipan (World War II) war movies

Battle of Saipan 15 June 1944

American invasion on Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana archipelago. The island played important part in plans of American forces since the long range bombers B-29 Superfortress would be able to attack targets on the main islands of Japan operating from Saipan.

Americans suspected Mariana Islands were well prepared for long campaign and thus the operation started with heavy bombardment from seven battleships and several cruisers. Japanese did prepared entrenchments, simple bunkers and gun emplacements, but large American forces that landed on 15 June 1944 were enough to establish beachhead. Japanese tried to counter-attack during the night, but they sustained heavy losses and had to retreat. US Marines took over the airfield 3 days after landing.

Admiral Soemu Toyoda arrived with the A-Go fleet on 19 June, but in clash with US Navy he lost 3 aircraft carriers and over 500 aircrafts. American pilots called that battle "turkey shoot - inexperienced Japanese pilots were making basic mistakes and were dying by dozens. Without fleet support and any views for resupply commander of Japanese commander of Saipan defence, Yoshitsugu Saito, planned the honourable suicide for his soldiers in banzai charge, expecting the same from civilians on the island. Japanese lost 24,000 out of 32,000 soldiers in battle, over 5,000 more committed suicide. Americans lost 3,500 Marines.

LVT-1 Alligator

Type 2 Ka-Mi

M4 Sherman

Type 95 Ha-Go

War movies about Battle of Saipan

Windtalkers 2002

Film based on a true story of Navajo Indians, who were used during the World War 2 as translators to send coded messages between units on Pacific using their native language, which made it impossible for the Japanese to decode them.