Battling for Saipan [Paperback]

When V Amphibious Corps were preparing for the invasion of the Marianas Islands—Saipan, Guam, and Tinian—they were expecting a relatively easy fight. The Japanese appeared to be on the run. As D day for Saipan (the first of the three islands scheduled for conquest) loomed, V Corps planners felt safe in allocating a single army division as corps reserve for the conquest.
 
As Lt. Col. William J. O’Brien’s First Battalion and the 105th Infantry landed on Saipan, they had little idea what was in store for them. Enemy opposition was fierce. For the next several weeks they faced the unremitting terror of nearly continuous combat. For the 105th Infantry, the battle climaxed in an overwhelming Japanese banzai attack July 7, 1944. The regiment suffered more than 900 casualties, almost half of whom were killed in action, including First Battalion’s commander, William O’Brien, who later received the Medal of Honor for his efforts. Throughout the battle, O’Brien provided a stirring example of frontline leadership to his previously untested troops. His story is just as inspiring today.1 Prelude to World War II
 
Following Germany’s attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, the U.S. War Department accelerated the training of the National Guard. Annual weekly drills increased from forty-eight to sixty per year, and summer field training was increased from fifteen to twenty-two days. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing an increase in the size of the army. The cycle of field maneuvers was changed so that in the summer of 1940, all of the available army divisions in the First Army area (both regular and National Guard) were able to participate in the maneuvers held at De Kalb Junction, New York (near the Canadian border). One of the first obvious facts observed by the commanders of the participating units walÇ