Combat· World War II
Garapan
Garapan was the largest town on Saipan and the second largest in the whole Mariana Islands.
It lay along the western coast in the path of the 2d Marine Division's drive north. Months of naval gunfire and artillery had already smashed the town into rubble before the Marines reached it. Pushing up the coast, they had to clear it street by street. The wreckage gave the defenders cover, with snipers in the twisted ruins and hidden pillboxes scattered among the broken buildings. Assault engineers, screened by riflemen and backed by tanks and self-propelled guns, worked behind the strongpoints to blast them out while flamethrowers cleared the way ahead. The Marines beat down the scattered resistance and pushed on past the ruined town toward the northern end of the island.
Podcast episodes on World War II
Record no. 853