On June 15, 1944, U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan


On June 15, 1944, U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands.

 Facing fierce Japanese resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battle Japanese soldiers inland and force the Japanese army to retreat north.

 Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipan’s highest peak, and Marines gave battle sites in the area names such as “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.”

 When the U.S. finally trapped the Japanese in the northern part of the island, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. 

On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Illustration depicting the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, June 28, 1914.

Image
Illustration depicting the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, June 28, 1914. Today 109 years ago, on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, leading directly to the outbreak of the First World War. In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife decided on a visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the opening of a state museum and for the couple's 14th wedding anniversary. Bosnia-Herzegovina had been formally annexed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908. The Bosnian revolutionary movement 'Young Bosnia' and the secret Serbian military organization the 'Black Hand' sought Bosnian independence in order to unify with Serbia in the formation of a Yugoslavia. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was in favour of a triple empire between Austria, Hungary and the Slavic nations. Feari...
Read more

The death pit

Image
The death pit A horrific photograph of an execution in eastern Europe during the second world war can be seen in Holocaust archives and museums around the world. But who are the killers, who are the victims, who took it - and why? Janina Struk felt compelled to investigate Two naked men stand on the edge of a pit, an older man several feet behind them, while a man and a boy, also naked, walk into the frame. Surrounding them are seven perpetrators, some armed, some in uniform, some not. A uniformed man on the far right-hand side of the picture is standing on a mound of earth, presumably dug from the pit, seemingly directing proceedings. The caption reads: "Sniatyn - tormenting Jews before their execution. 11.V.1943." I first saw a copy of this image as I was filing through photographs in the Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust in west London. At the time I did not understand what I was looking at. I had never encountered a scene quite like it before. The pit...
Read more

Poland, Women naked, before their execution

Image
Among the millions of photographs that are related to Nazi death camps, only four depict the actual process of mass killing perpetrated at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau. They show a completely different perspective, which makes them unique when dealing with visual material of the Holocaust and the Holocaust as a topic itself. They were taken inside the epicenter of the horror, from which no other visual material exists. They were taken clandestinely at the height of the Final Solution in 1944 by one of the so-called  Sonderkommando  – Jewish prisoners forced to help carry out the atrocities by removing the Nazis' victims from the gas chambers and destroying the corpses through fire or mass burial. One of the photographs shows a group of naked women; the others show the cremation of corpses. Poland, Women naked, before their execution If we agree that photography not only reflects reality, but also interprets it, than we need to take a closer look at the photograp...
Read more

After the Great War ended, around 200,000 ANZAC soldiers were repatriated home.

Image
Coming Home  After the Great War ended, around 200,000 ANZAC soldiers were repatriated home.   Our dominant image of this event is of triumphal soldiers returning on troopships, which dock at ports overflowing with cheering loved ones; of heartfelt reunions under colourful bunting and tossed streamers.  Yet Private Arthur Foxcroft’s account of returning home provides an alternative narrative.  Enlisting in 1915, Arthur meticulously recorded his war experience in his diary.  Foxcroft described his splendid Sydney send off, the wonderment of visiting ancient Egypt, and the joy of marching through the French countryside in full bloom.  His diary entries darkened in mid-1916, when he recorded the ‘awful slaughter’ on the Somme, where he sufferred a serious wound.    In 1917, Foxcroft wrote soberly of being seriously wounded a second time, which left him with ‘drop foot’.  His mother, Amelia, pleaded with authorities for his return so he coul...
Read more

LANGUAGE, UNIVERSAL

Image
LANGUAGE, UNIVERSAL The invention of a universal language, which men of all nations could understand and through which they could communicate their thoughts, has always been one of the dreams of certain philologists.  In the seventeenth century, Dalgarno had written his Ars Signorum to prove the possibility of a universal character and a philosophical language. About the same time Bishop Wilkins published his Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language; and even the mathematical Leibnitz entertained the project of a universal language for all the world.  It is not, therefore, surprising, that when the so-called Leland Manuscript stated that the Freemasons concealed a "Universal Language," John Locke, or whoever was the commentator on that document, should have been attracted by the statement. He says: A universal language has been much desired by the learned of many ages. It is a thing rather to be wished than hoped for. But it seems the Masons pretend to have...
Read more

At the end of January 1944, the 5th WSS Panzer Division "Wiking" was encircled in the Cherkasy pocket along with five other German divisions.

Image
At the end of January 1944, the 5th WSS Panzer Division "Wiking" was encircled in the Cherkasy pocket along with five other German divisions.  The pocket was surrounded by 35 Soviet divisions and was compressed to 100 square kilometers. This time Hitler allowed the breakout attempt and the Div. "Wiking" as the only armored division in the pocket and also well equipped, led the strike to the south. After the element of surprise had passed, the Russians began a heavy counterattack with armored support.  However, the onset of a snowstorm gave the German troops excellent cover and eventually the broken formations reached the final barrier to rescue, the less than 2 meter deep river at Gniloj and Tikits.  Since there was no bridge or ford, the soldiers had to swim across the river, with a human chain helping non-swimmers to cross. Many were swept away by the icy waters, but most made it to safety.  Finally, thanks to the action of the Wiking Division and in particular th...
Read more

Billy Bailey, the last American hanged

Image
DSP Crime Story: Billy Bailey, the last American hanged January 25th, 1996 Case handled by DSP Troop 3, Camden On this date in 1996,  Billy Bailey was hanged for murdering an elderly couple in Delaware. Billy Bailey  (January 1947 - January 25, 1996, Age 49) was a convicted  murderer  who was  hanged  in  Delaware  in 1996.  He became only the third person to be hanged in the United States since 1965 (the previous two were  Charles Rodman Campbell  and  Westley Allan Dodd , both in  Washington ) and the first person hanged in Delaware in 50 years.  As of 2019, he remains the last person to be executed by hanging in the United States. Bailey was condemned in 1980, which was before Texas debuted the lethal injection trend that would sweep the nation; therefore, he was sentenced to hang. When Delaware  switched to injection in 1986, Bailey had the choice between his original hempen-necktie sentence or the newfangled...
Read more

Dingo Bites Tourist's Bum: Unfortunate Incident at K'gari Beach

Image
Dingo Bites Tourist's Bum: Unfortunate Incident at K'gari Beach A new video has emerged, capturing the moment when a French woman was bitten on the buttocks by a dingo, a wild Australian canine species. The dingo involved in the incident has been subsequently killed by authorities. In contrast, the Malawian authorities have yet to take action against two German Shepherds that brutally attacked a four-year-old boy in Lilongwe. There is currently no update from the Malawi Police or veterinary authorities regarding the fate of these dogs that killed the child. A new video has emerged, capturing the moment when a French woman was bitten on the buttocks by a dingo, a wild Australian canine species. The dingo involved in the incident has been subsequently killed by authorities. The incident occurred while the woman was sunbathing at a beach on K’gari Island, Australia. The Queensland Department of Environment and Science has stated that the animal was “humanely euthanised” due to it...
Read more

GERMAN WAR CRIMINAL PETER BACK HANGING FROM A NOOSE, GERMANY, JULY 1945

Image
GERMAN WAR CRIMINAL PETER BACK HANGING FROM A NOOSE, GERMANY, JULY 1945 Photograph. Convicted German war criminal, Peter Back, hanging from a noose in a wooden scaffold at a prison, hood over his head. Official Caption: "Rome, 7/11/45 --A German pays for his crime--His head hooded with a black cloth Peter Back, convicted German war criminal, hangs in the noose at a prison near Cologne, Germany. He and two other German civilians were hanged June 29, 1945, for murdering an American airman who parachuted down near Priest, Germany, in August, 1944.--U.S. Signal Corps photo through Rome OWI--Approved by appropriate military authority (List B out) 7081."”Near Cologne, Germany. 11 July 1945 COLLECTION LEVEL:  Items from the service of Isaac "Ike" Bethel Utley, who was born in Smith Mills, Kentucky on 3 March 1920. Ike enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 January 1942. He was shipped overseas to the European Theatre and worked with a supply division based out of the...
Read more

The actual execution of Amon Goeth.

Image
This is the actual execution of Amon Goeth. He was famously depicted in the movie Schindler’s List, as firing on concentration camp prisoners with a sniper rifle from his balcony. Amon Leopold Göth  (German: [ˈɡøːt] (listen); alternative spelling  Goeth ; 11 December 1908 – 13 September 1946) was an Austrian SS functionary and war criminal. He served as the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów in German-occupied Poland for most of the camp's existence during World War II. Göth was tried after the war by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków and was found guilty of personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people. He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for "personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people." Göth was...
Read more