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<\/a> Although many consider the Marianas landings, and especially the Tinian assault as predominantly Navy-Marine Corps operations, that oversimplification could not be further from the truth.\u00a0Evidence of the Army\u2019s active participation can be found throughout the landing force detailed to take Tinian.<\/p>\n First off, the Theater Army of the Pacific provided much of the operational planning, specialized manpower skills, heavy weapons, logistics, Combat Medical support, signal, engineer, and other theater-level enabling capabilities that made the operation possible.<\/p>\n Operation FORAGER was planned, organized, trained for, and extensively rehearsed beforehand on select Hawaiian bases throughout O\u2019ahu, Maui, Kaho\u2019olawe, and the Big Island, with new assault troops benefiting from the specialized training packages taught by Soldiers at Army-run training facilities and schools\u2019 purpose-designed and constructed to replicate the combat conditions anticipated in the Marianas.\u00a0There, infantry, artillery, engineers, and tank crews mastered the techniques and procedures for reducing enemy obstacles and fortifications, practicing until perfection.<\/p>\n After the campaign, many participants reflected on the high level of preparation for the campaign, saying it felt as though they\u2019d experienced it all beforehand.<\/p>\n Among the 70,000 assault troops that took part in FORAGER, more than one-third were Army, which also provided most of the combat service support, medical support, and an artillery Corps.\u00a0Of the 415 LVTs that carried the assault troops from Saipan to the Tinian landing beaches, 225 (or 55%) were operated by Soldiers from four Army Amphibian tractor battalions, accompanied by Army amphibious tanks.<\/p>\n Many of the Soldiers of the 534th, 708th, 715th, and 773d Amphibian Tractor Battalions had made combat assaults during both the Saipan and Guam invasions; Tinian was their third assault landing made during July 1944 alone.\u00a0Troops from the 27th Division and the 477th Amphibian Truck Companies, as well as the 708th Amphibious Tank Battalion provided more than half of the 140 DUKW amphibious trucks, and eighty tanks, and the extra crews needed to resupply and support the Tinian assault troops.<\/p>\n The assault on Tinian was favored with the most prolonged preliminary artillery bombardment than any other Central Pacific Island in the war.\u00a0That fire support was largely provided by the XXIV Corps Artillery, consisting of 13 battalions with 156 guns. The artillery groupment consisted of two 155mm gun battalions, three 155mm howitzer battalions, and eight 105mm howitzer battalions, which provided a steady, 24-hr a day firing of an average of 1,509 fire missions of 24,536 rounds daily.<\/p>\n Spotting was provided by an organic group of nine spotting observation aircraft, so many that it prompted the building of a separate runway to accommodate them on Saipan.\u00a0Two of the Army\u2019s 155mm Arty battalions went ashore with the Marines, firing almost 50,000 rounds in support of the operation during the three weeks of combat.\u00a0Air support was provided by dedicated squadron of Army P-47 aircraft, which averaged 175 sorties a day. Army bombers dropped 69 tons of ordnance on Tinian targets.\u00a0The Army also provided two Field Hospitals and three Portable Surgical Hospitals, plus several engineer and signal units.<\/p>\n The 8,000 Japanese defenders fought tenaciously for every inch of ground, considering it Japanese soil.\u00a0The ferocity of battle led to one of the highest casualty rates among American troops.\u00a0Tinian was also the site of a major night counterattack, in which more than 2,500 Japanese soldiers fanatically attacked friendly defensive positions.<\/p>\n By the time Tinian was declared secure on 1 August, about 500 of the 8,000 Japanese defenders remained alive.\u00a0Cleaning them out lasted through September.\u00a0Even as the fighting in the south was still being carried out, a massive engineering effort was underway in the north part of the island, where four east-west runways were being constructed to take advantage of the seasonal wind patterns.\u00a0In a few short months the first squadron of America\u2019s newest long-range bomber, the B-29, landed in the Marianas and went to work with a vengeance.\u00a0American forces now owned an ideal airbase, only 12 flight hours away from Tokyo.<\/p>\n
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\n LVT carrying assault troops from Saipan to Tinian. More than half of the 140 LVTs used to Land the assault force were crewed by the U.S. Army. The Tinian invasion is the only major amphibious assault to be launched from land by LVTs that transited the three nautical miles from Saipan to Tinian.
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\n Soldiers and Marines use an LVT to transfer combat casualties to medical facilities on board Navy ships off Tinian, 26 July 1944.
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\n Army 155mm howitzer on Tinian, providing fire support during the assault. 28 July 1944. Much of the combat service support for the Tinian operation was provided by the Army.
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\n Battle map of Tinian
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