The United States assembled a significant combined arms task force to undertake the campaign. The Fifth Fleet was commanded by AdmiralRaymond A. Spruance. Task Force 58, commanded by Vice AdmiralMarc Mitscher, consisted of 15 carriers, 7 battleships, 11 cruisers, 86 destroyers and over 900 planes. The amphibious invasion force, commanded by Vice AdmiralRichmond K. Turner, consisted of 56 attack transports, 84 landing craft and over 127,000 troops.[4]
At the beginning of the campaign,United States Marine Corps andUnited States Army forces, with support from theUnited States Navy, executed landings onSaipan in June 1944. In response, theImperial Japanese Navy'sCombined Fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy force supporting the landings. In the resultingBattle of the Philippine Sea (also known as the "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.
Prior to the landings in the Forager invasion (Guam and Tinian) Operation Wedlock, a phantom diversion campaign was taking place. The increased radio traffic, starting in October 1943, purported a I Alaskan Corps preparing to invade the Kurile island group.[5] A joint army/navy radio task force was established atAdak, Alaska to push out the fake radio traffic to the equally fictitious IX Amphibious Force and 9th US Fleet.
U.S. forces landed onSaipan in June 1944 and onGuam andTinian 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 from whichB-29s were able to conduct strategic bombing missions against theJapanese home islands until the end of World War II, including thenuclear attacks onHiroshima andNagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands ofPeleliu andAngaur inPalau in September 1944. After heavy fighting, both islands were finally secured by U.S. forces in November 1944, while the main Japanese garrison in the Palaus onKoror was bypassed altogether, only to surrender in August 1945 with theJapan's capitulation.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in thePhilippines in October 1944 and theVolcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January 1945.
D'Albas, Andrieu (1965).Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub.ISBN0-8159-5302-X.
Denfeld, D. Colt (1997).Hold the Marianas: The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands. White Mane Pub.ISBN1-57249-014-4.
Drea, Edward J. (1998). "An Allied Interpretation of the Pacific War".In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.ISBN0-8032-1708-0.
Rottman, Gordon (2004).Saipan & Tinian 1944: Piercing the Japanese Empire. Campaign 137. illustrated by Howard Gerrard. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.ISBN1-84176-804-9.
Moran, Jim; Rottman, Gordon (2002).Peleliu 1944: The Forgotten Corner of Hell. Campaign 110. illustrated by Howard Gerrard. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.ISBN1-84176-512-0.
Headquarters of the Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Area (1944).Campaign Plan Granite II(PDF) (Report). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 7 March 2024.
Hoffman, Major Carl W. USMC (1950),"Saipan: The Beginning of the End",USMC Historical Monograph, Historical Branch, United States Marine Corps – via Hyperwar Foundation
Gayle, Gordon D. (1996)."Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu".Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. Marine Corps Historical Center. Archived fromthe original on 1 January 2007. Retrieved19 December 2006.
Hough, Frank O. (1950),"The Assault on Peleliu (The Seizure of Peleliu)",USMC Historical Monograph, Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, retrieved19 December 2006 – via Hyperwar Foundation
Smith, Robert Ross (1996),"The Approach to the Philippines",United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific, United States Army Center of Military History – via Hyperwar Foundation
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