Blood and Dust

On Saipan three divisions of battle-tried U.S. troops fought one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. military annals. By week's end, they had pushed, blasted and gouged the enemy from two-thirds of the island's 75 square miles. They were sure of victory. But the Jap, fighting a Bataan in reverse, in the third week of it still fought hard.

In the first 14 days of land fighting on Saipan the U.S. had lost 1,474 dead, 878 missing, 7,400 wounded. Total: 9,752, of whom seven-eighths were marines of the 2nd and 4th Divisions, one-eighth Army, of the 27th Division (New York National Guard).*

Four for One. For these victims the enemy paid bitterly. In the first 16 days, 6,015 Jap dead were buried by the invaders. Hundreds of other Japs who died could not be counted because their bodies were atomized by high explosive, lost in the jungle or carried away by comrades.

To rout the Japs from their caves in Saipan's limestone hills, the attackers used every weapon in the varied U.S. arsenal, from flamethrowers and bazookas to 16-inch naval guns and 2,000-lb. bombs.

It was a foot-by-foot battle even after the island's peak, Mt. Tapotchau, had been captured. Japs hung on in the ravines until they were killed. Tanks had to be used against pockets no bigger than 100 yards in diameter. Many Jap caves had steel doors which were opened periodically for machine guns to fire. Snipers were everywhere. An Army colonel was shot through the heart by a sniper who had hidden more than a week. A recurrent gag, reported TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod, was that the safest place to be was in the front line.

Centripetal Blows. How many more Americans must die before Saipan could be cleared of all its original 20,000 to 30,000 defenders, no man could say. But final victory was assured by Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's huge Task Force 58, whose carriers kept supply lanes clear.

This week, after a thoroughgoing aerial bombardment, U.S. troops under Douglas MacArthur's command landed on tiny Noemfoor Island, 60 miles west of Biak off the north "New Guinea coast. They seized Karmiri airfield, went to work mopping up. On Biak, MacArthur's men already controlled an airfield only 880 miles from the Philippines. Noemfoor's field is 80 miles closer.

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