The preparation of the Saipan monograph entailed consultation of several thousand documents. Many of these merely confirmed information found in other sources, some contributed only a single fact or an isolated impression, still others were so general that they could hardly be considered as valuable. In this bibliography, therefore, only the most important and useful will be mentioned. Unless noted differently, the below listed documents are filed in the Marine Corps Historical Division.
Documents
JICPOA Information Bulletins 7-44 and 29-44. The former, entitled "Marianas," gives detailed facts concerning the islands' appearance, history, geography, climate and people. The latter, entitled "Weather Survey for Carolines and Marianas," gives weather statistics for the islands.
VAC G-2 Study of the Theater of Operations, Southern Marianas. Contains descriptions of Saipan, Tinian, Aguijan, and Rota, together with information on terrain, climate and meteorology. This document was very important in the preparations of detailed landing force attack plans.
CINCPAC-CINCPOA Operation Plan 3-44, 23Apr44. Assigns southern Marianas as a specific objective. Filed at Naval Records and Library.
TF 51 Operation Plan A10-44, 6May44. Assigns detailed missions to troops and ships of the Joint Expeditionary Force.
TF 56 Operation Plan 3-44, 26Apr44. NTLF Operation Plan 3-44. 2d Mar Div Operation Order 18, 1May44. 4th Mar Div Operation Plan 4-44, 6May44. These documents give troop plans for the seizure of Saipan. The 27th Infantry Division prepared 21 separate plans for possible employment at any of the Marianas objectives; three preferred plans--Hq 27th Inf Div Opn Plan I, II, and III--are filed at the U. S. Army Historical Division.
COMINCH P-007, 30Dec44, "Invasion of the Marianas, June to August 1944." Prepared at the Headquarters of the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, this document is a valuable synthesis of action reports received from major subordinate units participating in the Saipan, Tinian and Guam operations.
ComFIFTHFleet Reports (Initial and Final) on the Operation to Capture the Marianas Islands, 13Jul44 and 30Aug44, respectively. The former report contains a comprehensive summary of the Battle of the Philippine Sea; the latter draws general conclusions (chiefly strategic) regarding the entire Marianas campaign.
TF 51 Report on Amphibious Operations for the capture of the Marianas Islands, 25Aug
44. Contains detailed, day-by-day account of activities of all principal elements of the Joint Expeditionary Force, 15 enclosures.
TF 56 Report on FORAGER, 2Oct44. Basic report of Commanding General Expeditionary Troops, seven enclosures in separate volumes, covering planning, operations, intelligence, logistics, personnel and special staff officers' reports.
NTLF Special Action Report of Marianas, Phase I, Saipan, 12Aug44. Recounts in detail the day-by-day progress of the landing force, from early planning stages to operation's conclusion, 12 enclosures in separate volumes. Most valuable source for over-all summary of ground action at Saipan. Enclosure I contains reports of XXIV Corps Artillery, NTLF Air Officer and NTLF Naval Gunfire Officer.
2d Mar Div Special Action Report, Phase I, Marianas, undated. Narrative account of division activities from initiation of planning to the end of the operation. Contains a number of excellent photographs showing the terrain over which the division operated. Action reports of regiments and battalions of 2d Marine Division filed in separate folders.
4th MarDiv Operations Report Saipan, 15Jun-9Jul44. Narrative account of division activities from initiation of planning to the end of operation. Contains, in addition to reports of staff sectons, reports of major subordinate units, 12 annexes.
27th Inf Div Report of Operations on Saipan, 24Oct44. Narrative account of division's activities from initiation of planning to the end of operation. Contains, in addition to reports of staff sections, reports of major subordinate units and activities, 14 volumes.
CINCPAC-CINCPOA translations of captured Japanese documents including field orders, message files, "lessons learned" summaries, recommendations, organization charts, and diaries. Of this great mass of material, Item #9983-85, "Dispatches sent and received by 31st Army Headquarters on Saipan from 13 to 29 June 1944 . . . " is by far the most valuable.
Proceedings of a board of officers appointed to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the relief of Major General Ralph C. Smith, 0-4723, USA, from command of the 27th Infantry Division while engaged in the FORAGER operation. The proceedings, exhibits, testimony of witnesses, and conclusions contained in this board's report, though sometimes prejudiced and opinionated, provide a wealth of narrative detail relating to the Saipan operation.
Primary Sources
The War Reports of General George C. Marshall, General Henry H. Arnold and Admiral Ernest J. King. New York and Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1947.
United States Strategic Bombing Survey. The Campaigns of the Pacific War. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946.
United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Interrogations of Japanese Officials. 2 Volumes, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946.
Secondary Sources
Arnold, Henry H. Global Mission. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949.
Buchanan, A. R., editor. The Navy's Air War, A Mission Completed. New York: Harper and Brothers for Aviation History Unit OP519B, DCNO (Air), 1946.
Daniel, Hawthorne. Islands of the Pacific. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1943.
Haugland, Vern. The AAF Against Japan. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1948.
Historical Division, War Department, Washington, D. C. Small Unit Actions. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1.946.
Hough, Frank O. The Island War: The United States Marine Corps in the Pacific. Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1947.
Howard, Clive, et al. One Damned Island After Another. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946.
Johnston, Richard W. Follow Me! New York: Random House, 1948.
Josephy, Alvin M., et al. Uncommon Valor: Marine Division in Action. Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1946.
Kenney, George C. General Kenney Reports. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949.
Knox, Dudley W. A History of the United States Navy. New York: G.. P. Putnam's Sons, 1948.
Krieger, Herbert W. Smithsonian War Background Studies Number Sixteen, People of the Western Pacific, Micronesia and Melanesia. Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1943.
Love, Edmund G. The 27th Infantry Division in World War II. Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1949.
Miller, Francis Trevelyan. History of World War II. Philadelphia and Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, 1945.
Pratt, Fletcher. The Marines' War. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1948.
Proehl, Carl W. The Fourth Marine Division in World War II. Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1946.
Robson, R. W. The Pacific Islands Handbook, 1944. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1945.
Sherrod, Robert. On to Westward, War in the Central Pacific. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1945.
Smith, Holland M. Coral and Brass. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949.
Stockman, James R., et al. Campaign for the Marianas. Philadelphia: Marine Corps Publicity Bureau for Historical Division, U. S. Marine Corps, 1946.
Yanaihara, Tadao. Pacific Islands Under Japanese Mandate. New York: Oxford University Press, 1940.
Periodicals
Donovan, James A., Jr. "Saipan Tank Battle." Marine Corps Gazette, October 1944.
Heinl, Robert D., Jr. "Naval Gunfire Support in Landing." Marine Corps Gazette, September 1945.
Hockmuth, Bruno A. "Observations on Saipan." Marine Corps Gazette, January 1945.
Love, Edmund G. "The 27th's Battle for Saipan." Infantry Journal, September 1946.
Sherrod, Robert. "Battalion on Saipan." Marine Corps Gazette, October 1944.
Stockman, James R. "The Taking of Mt. Tapotchau." Marine Corps Gazette, July 1946.
Letters and Interviews
In addition to sources already cited, over 300 officers and men in key positions during the Saipan operation were consulted by letter or interview. Many of the letters were in comment on a preliminary draft of this monograph. In addition to correcting errors of omission or commission, these letters were helpful in confirming statements which had been gleaned from impersonal, frequently confusing, action reports. To list each of these letters and interviews separately would impose too much bulk upon this manuscript. Suffice it is to say that these are available in the working files of the Marine Corps Historical Division for the reference of any bona fide student of this phase of military history. Many of these letters and interviews have been cited at appropriate points throughout the monograph.
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