Opening scene shows an M8A1 75mm Howitzer motor carriage (variant of M8, using M5A1 Stuart tank chassis). It moves slowly toward the camera along a dirt road on Saipan during World War 2. Closeup shows short gun barrel and driver in turret above, speaking on radio. Bodies of many Japanese soldiers are seen, recently killed in final attacks culminating in their organized suicide assault (AKA "the Tanapag Plain banzai attack") on July 6th and 7th, 1944. A marine throws a hand grenade at a clump of foliage. (Note: Principal American defenders included units of the 105th Infantry, that bore the brunt of the assault, together with 165th Infantry; 23rd Marines; 24th Marines; 25th Marines; 20th Marine,Engineers; and 10th Marines, plus supporting artillery units.
Camera follows American troops as they comb through hiding places at the end of the battle for Saipan in World War 2. Small children hiding among some boulders. Next a Japanese woman and four small children are seen seated on the ground. A U.S. soldier bandages the arm of one child. A group of American soldiers searches for Japanese soldiers near a cave. Two soldiers seen firing at a suspected Japanese enemy position. Next, they search the underbrush and retrieve a box of canned goods next to the body of a dead Japanese soldier. A dead Japanese soldier floating in a stream. U.S. infantrymen continuing their search for Japanese holdouts. One retrieves an abandoned Japanese rifle. Another holds a Japanese grenade. One GI displays a Japanese long Arisaka Type 38 rifle with a Type 30 bayonet. (The rifle is 4 feet, 2 inches long and the bayonet 20 inches, making it almost 5-feet in overall length.) Camera pans across misty landscape near the shore, with so-called "suicide cliff" in background. A woman and small girl sitting beneath a rough shelter.
A native Chamorro man walking slowly along a path on Saipan after the American defeat of Japanese forces there in World War 2 Small boats maneuvering near the shore. Several American soldiers search a Japanese youth in uniform. A number of Japanese women and children being assembled and tended to by U.S. infantrymen, who pour them water from a large can. Japanese prisoners and civilians fill an open truck, to overflowing, as an American military photographer takes pictures.
Camera pans past body of fallen Japanese soldier to U.S. Marines spread out along a shoreline as landing craft maneuver nearby and an American aircraft flies low overhead. Japanese prisoners along with women and children walk in a line. Glimpse of body of a dead Japanese soldier. Another group of Japanese prisoners and civilians. Several stand near American soldiers looking out at the small craft maneuvering offshore. A man (interpreter) speaks into a microphone, giving instructions to the Japanese persons on the shore. Body of dead Japanese woman. Bodies of numerous dead Japanese soldiers along the shore. Japanese prisoners with shovels begin recovering the bodies, placing them on makeshift litters and carrying them away.
General Roy Geiger and General Simon Buckner I Okinawa, Japan. General Buckner and General Joseph Stilwell confer outside a tent. Tanks and infantrymen move at Hill 92 for a battle against Japanese troops. Heavy fire takes place and a Japanese officer with a badly burnt face surrenders to American soldiers. Officer fed Japanese officer after interrogating him. (World War II period).
'Naval operations off Okinawa '. Japanese ships underway in the sea, off the coast of Okinawa in Japan. A Japanese plane shot down by American carrier aircraft. It also strafes a Japanese ship. Japanese planes attack American ships and shot. Fire on United States Navy cruiser Bunker Hill fought by men. Seamen rescued as they climb onto a ship. A fighter's belly tank drops on a carrier while landing and causes fire. (World War II period).
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