Marines in World War II Commemorative Series By Richard Harwood...

by Richard Harwood T hree weeks into the battle for Saipan, there was no doubt about the outcome and V Amphibious Corps (VAC) commanders began turning their attention to the next objective—the island of Tinian, clearly visible three miles off Saipan’s southwest coast. Its garrison of 9,000 Japanese army and navy combatants, many of them veterans of the campaigns in Manchuria, had been bombarded for seven weeks by U.S. air and sea armadas, joined in late June by massed Marine Corps and Army artil

In a letter written to Hoffman in 1950, Turner said: “... before the reconnaissances of July 10 and 11 were made, I had (without announcement) tentatively decided to accept the White Beaches unless the reconnaissance reports were decidedly unfavorable.” This was one of those cases, as John F. Kennedy once said, in which “victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan.” [Sidebar ( page 5 )]: Clifton B. Cates, a native Tennessean, was commissioned in 1917, and was sent to France with the 6th Mar

[Sidebar ( page 6 )]: Early in 1944, Army Air Corps personnel at Eglin Air Force base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida invented a new weapon. It was a “fire bomb,” first used in combat during the Tinian campaign. The ingredients were diesel oil, gasoline, and a metallic salt from the naptha used in the manufacture of soap. Mixed with petroleum fuels, the salt created an incendiary jelly that clung to any surface and burned with an extremely hot flame. The concoction was called “napalm.” It could

[Sidebar ( page 9 )]: Japanese military fortification of Tinian and other islands in the chain had begun—in violation of the League of Nations Mandate—in the 1930s. By 1944, the Tinian garrison numbered roughly 9,000 army and navy personnel, bringing the island’s total population to nearly 25,000. The 50th Infantry Regiment , detached from the 29th Division on Guam, was the principal fighting force. It had been stationed near Mukden, Manchuria, from 1941 until its transfer in March 1944 to Tinia

9 March—The Navy stays in barracks buildings and has liberty every night with liquor to drink and makes a big row. We, on the other hand, bivouac in the rain and never get out on pass. What a difference in discipline! 12 June—Our AA guns [manned by the Navy] spread black smoke where the enemy planes weren’t. Not one hit out of a thousand shots. The Naval Air Group has taken to its heels. 15 June—The naval aviators are robbers.... When they ran off to the mountains, they stole Army provisions....

Over the next two days, bombers hit the islands and shipping in the area with no letup. There was a fatalistic diary entry by one of the Tinian troops: “Now begins our cave life.” Another soldier wrote of the ineffectual antiaircraft fire—“not one hit out of a thousand shots”—and reported that “the Naval Air Group has taken to its heels.” Yet another diarist was indignant, too: “The naval aviators are robbers.... When they ran off to the mountains they stole Army provisions.” Fast battleships fr

The photographic coverage of Tinian, along with prisoners and documents captured at Saipan, and other intelligence available to U.S. commanders, made them, according to the official history, “almost as familiar with the Japanese strength at Tinian as was Colonel Ogata [the Japanese commander].”...

Lieutenant Colonel William W. “Bucky” Buchanan was the assistant naval gunfire officer for the 4th Division at Tinian. His career later took him to Vietnam. After his retirement as a brigadier general he recalled the Tinian campaign: We used the same tactics on Tinian that we did on Saipan: that is, a hand-holding, linear operation, like a bunch of brush-beaters, people shooting grouse or something, the idea being to flush out every man consistently as we go down, rather than driving down the ma

By 14 August the entire 4th Division had embarked on the long trip to its base camp on Maui. It had suffered in this brief operation more than 1,100 casualties, including 212 killed. Its next assignment would be Iwo Jima. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 87678 In an impromptu command post set up behind his 8th Marines, Col Clarence R. Wallace checks the progress of his frontline troops on a situation map. The overhead poncho provides some protection from Tinian’s constant rains. The 2d Divisio

In addition to the official Marine Corps histories of the Tinian campaign, Lt John C. Chapin, The Fourth Marine Division in World War II (Washington, August, 1945); John Costello, The Pacific War (New York, 1981); John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York, 1986); Maj Carl W. Hoffman, Saipan: The Beginning of the End (Washington, 1950); Maj Carl W. Hoffman, The Seizure of Tinian (Washington, 1951); Frank Olney Hough, The Island War: The U.S. Marine Corps in the Pa

Richard Harwood, a journalist and news executive, retired as deputy managing editor of The Washington Post in 1988. He now writes an editorial column for The Post which is distributed nationally by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service. He served in the U.S. Marines from 1942 until 1946, and spent 30 months in the Pacific. As a radio operator in the V Amphibious Corps he participated in four operations, including Tinian....

In A Different War: Marines in Europe and North Africa , page 32 reports Adm Hewitt visited the cruiser “ Helena (CL-50)” in spring 1946. This cruiser was sunk in 1943. The ship the admiral boarded was its successor, the heavy cruiser Helena (CA-75). On page 27 of Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam , the 77th Infantry Division patrolled hills to the east, rather than to the west. The date of the action which merited a Medal of Honor for PFC Harold G. Epperson is 25 June 1944, not July,