Saipan Beach H-Hour, in Color

Pacific Paratrooper has reached the H-Hour of the Saipan invasion and nothing tells the story better than this post and the short film included by John R. Bruning!

Being as some people have been unable to see the video, I have included another.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWrnS_A-e_I

The American Warrior

In just two hours on June 15, 1944, three hundred amphibious tractors (LVT’s) carried over eight thousand heavily armed U.S. Marines onto Saipan Island in the Marianas Chain. It was a masterful display of amphibious warfare tactics and doctrine, but it also set the stage for a brutal, close range battle for control of Saipan’s sandy west coast. In places, the Marines found themselves pinned down by intense mortar, artillery and automatic weapons fire, and it took hours just to claw a foothold ashore. But by nightfall, the Marines had established themselves enough to repel the first of many Japanese counter-attacks.

This short film clip is raw footage shot by one of the Marine combat cameramen who went ashore with one of the first waves. It is silent, as was most of the footage shot, but that only adds to the poignancy of these scenes. The images are striking, not only…

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