From Pen and Sword's Images of War series, we have Saipan 1944, a chronological account of the Battle of Saipan with more than 200 photographs, including graphic images of the fighting and the huge naval bombardment.
The Most Decisive Battle of the Pacific War.
– John Grehan
After the astonishing Japanese successes of 1941 and early 1942, the Allies began to fight back. After victories at Guadalcanal, Coral Sea, Midway, and other islands in the Pacific, by 1944, the Japanese had been pushed back onto the defensive. Yet there was no sign of an end to the war, as the Japanese mainland was beyond the reach of land-based heavy bombers. So, in the spring of 1944, the focus of attention turned to the Mariana Islands – Guam, Saipan and Tinian – which were close enough to Tokyo to place the Japanese capital within the operational range of the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
The attack upon Saipan, the most heavily-defended of the Marianas, took the Japanese by surprise, but over the course of more than three weeks, the 29,000 Japanese defenders defied the might of 71,000 U.S. Marines and infantry, supported by 15 battleships and eleven cruisers. The storming of the beaches and the mountainous interior cost the U.S. troops dearly, in what was the most-costly battle to date in the Pacific War.
9781526758309, $22.95 USD, Frontline Books, June 29, 2021