Battle of the Marianas Islands

Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
A U.S. amphibious tractor loaded with Marines approaches Tinian during the U.S. landings on that island
Date June – November, 1944 Location Mariana and Palau Islands, Pacific Ocean Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
United States	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Chester Nimitz Raymond A. Spruance Richmond K. Turner Holland Smith Roy Geiger Harry Schmidt William H. Rupertus Paul J. Mueller	Yoshitsugu Saito † Chuichi Nagumo † Jisaburo Ozawa Kakuji Kakuta † Takeshi Takashina † Hideyoshi Obata † Kiyochi Ogata † Sadae Inoue Kunio Nakagawa †
Strength
128,000 600+ ships	71,000
Casualties and losses
9,500 killed	67,000+ killed

The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.

Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.

Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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