The Probert Encyclopaedia of Warfare

BATTLE OF SAIPAN

The Battle of Saipan during the Second World War, was an American capture in 1944 of the Japanese-held island of Saipan of the Mariana group about 1900 km north of New Guinea. The operation was mainly notable for the mass suicide of the Japanese civil population, several hundred of whom threw themselves over a cliff rather than be captured. Saipan was invaded by American forces on the 17th of June 1944, before the Japanese had completed their planned fortifications. An airfield was captured on the first day, allowing US fighters to provide instant air support, but clearing the island was a slow and hard fight which lasted until the 17th of July. Even then numbers of Japanese troops hid in the more remote areas until the war ended.
Research Battle of Saipan