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and TINIAN Island Mariana Islands An ADAIR APA-91 WWII stopping point Adair, left the Marshall Islands 20 October. The ship disembarked her passengers at Tinian Island in the Marianas on 26 October and made a five day visit to Saipan between 27 and 31 October. Photos taken by the Adair crew appear below, as they appear in their Cruise Book.
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| Saipan is
the largest
of the Northern Marianas, about 13 miles long and 5 miles wide with
Garapan,
its largest town. It enjoys US Commonwealth status, the main island and
is 1650 miles east of Manila, 1700 miles north of Papua New Guinea and
3720 miles west of Hawaii. The peak of a submerged mountain, the island
of Saipan rises more than 36,000 feet above the floor of the Mariana
Trench,
one of the unseen natural wonders of the world that dives to a depth of
38,635 feet.
Discovered in 1521
by Ferdinand
Magellan on his last trans-Pacific voyage to the famed Spice Islands,
Saipan
and its neighbouring islands were variously, over the centuries,
colonised
by the Spanish, influenced by the Germans and occupied by the Japanese.
The Americans came on June 15, 1944. Tinian is about the same size and shape as Manhattan, and when US forces assaulted on July 24, 1944, they laid out a system of roads with the same general plan and orientation as on Manhattan. The main north-south road, for example, is Broadway, and it runs parallel to the other main north-south road, 8th Avenue. During the war six air strips were constructed on Tinian and two more on Saipan to accommodate the B-29s.
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The island was garrisoned by Japanese Lt. General Saito's 30,000 troops. The story of the defense of Saipan was a sad chapter of fighting yet to come in later battles. Several Japanese counter attacks and Banzai charges bloodied the US forces as they fought their way to the north The civilian population of Saipan committed mass suicide by jumping off cliffs at Marpi Point or committing suicide with hand grenades in caves. An estimated 22,000 civilians died in the battle. The Japanese committed suicide at at least two different locations on the north end of the island, Suicide Cliff, which is over 800 ft high, and just north of that at Banzai Cliff, which is a bluff over looking the ocean. Many of these people hit the rocks below, and there bodies made a Sargaso Sea for weeks in the waters off Saipan. Lt. General Saito and Navy Admiral Nagumo committed heri-kari on July 9th, the day the island was declared officially secured by the US forces.
Isely Field was one of the most important U.S. airbases in the Pacific theater during World War II. Immediately following its capture, Isely Field was used by American fighter aircraft for tactical airstrikes against enemy positions on Saipan and Tinian. Even while the fighting for Saipan raged, Army Engineering battalions began the job of transforming the former Japanese airfield into a facility capable of accomodating the Very Long Range B-29 Superfortress bomber. Work on Isely Field went on 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next six months. The first B-29 arrived on Saipan on October 12, 1944 and a month later, Isely Field's twin runways were fully operational. By mid-November, the 73rd Bomb Wing was fully deployed on Saipan and B-29 bombing raids against Japan commenced almost immediately. At the height of combat operations there were approximately 15,000 aircrew and ground support personnel stationed at Isely Field. By war's end, the 73rd had flown 9,897 combat sorties and dropped 48,532 tons of bombs on enemy targets. This impressive record was compiled at the cost of 183 aircraft lost and 1,033 aircrew men killed.
| Following the surrender of Japan, B-29s from Isely Field, were used to drop medical and food supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Japan. With the departure of combat air groups in late 1945, Isely Field was used as an emergency and refueling facility by the 6253 Air Base Unit until 1949 when it was closed. Following World War II, commercial airlines used a landing facility called Kobler Field, three kilometers from Isely Field. By 1968, the Kobler runway had seriously deteriorated and it was decided to move the airport to Isely Field. Construction of the Saipan International Airport, as Isely Field was renamed, began in October of 1973. The first commercial aircraft to land at the new airport arrived on December 15, 1975, thus beginning a new era for historic Isely Field. | 
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Kobler
Field We were sent to Saipan and assigned to the 819th Bombardment Squadron of the 30th Air Group, We flew from an airfield called Kobler Field. Our squadron had its own mess hall and an outdoor movie theater (see left):
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| The island had
three good
airfield (a fourth under construction by the Japanese). Assaulted on
July
24, 1944 by Marines from Saipan, which had just been taken the previous
month. After a fierce bombardment, the 4th Marine division landed
against
Admiral Kakuda's 9,000 garrison. The Japanese were taken by surprise.
The 2nd Marine Division landed on July 26th. The Marines battled back counter attacks against their beachheads. The island was secured by August 1st with 300 Marines killed, and 5,000 Japanese. After the fighting ended, the US Forces turned the island into a huge base. Probably one of the most historically important airfields in the Pacific. This field was the base of USAAF general Curtis LeMay's B-29 Superfortress raids on the home islands of Japan. Bombers from Tinian flew 1,500 mile round trip flights to Japan and back. |
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North
Field as
it looked during World War II. The photo shows only three
runways,
which dates it sometime earlier than May 1945 when construction of
Runway
Four was completed. North Field was designed for an entire wing
of
B-29 Superfortresses, the 313th Bombardment Wing, with hardstands to
park
265 B-29s. Each of the parallel runways stretched more than a
mile
and a half in length. Around and between the runways were nearly
eleven miles of taxiways.
MARIANA Islands..................................Go To Central Pacific Map
