The Battle for Tinian: Vital Stepping Stone in America's War Against Japan

Tinian's defense forged a pivotal U.S. victory that enabled the air power shift shaping the war's end.

In July 1944, the 9,000-man Japanese garrison on the island of Tinian listened warily as the thunder of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, Army and Air Corps, descended on their neighboring island, Saipan, just three miles away. There were 20,000 Japanese troops on Saipan, but the US obliterated the opposition after a horrific all-arms campaign. The sudden silence only indicated it wa...