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17: A Different War, A Different Enemy As we approached the Marianas in a bright, cloudless sky, I moved up from my navigator's table to a position between the pilot and copilot for a better look. I was anxious to see my new home. The campaign to capture the Marianas in the summer of 1944 featured the largestamphibious assaults ofthe war in the Pacific up to that time. Organized resistance on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam had ended on all three islands by mid-August. A few scatteredJapanese remained to harass us until the end of the war. Only the island ofRota north of Guam was still inJapanese hands; ourforces had bypassed it. Itbecame a favorite practice bombing area for our aircrews. On several occasions we threw empty beer cans out of the bomb bay after dropping our bombs, certain that the cans would whistle like real bombs and the Japanese would wait for an explosion that never materialized. The Marianas are a series ofvolcanic islands several hundred miles long in the central Pacific, thirty-five hundred miles from Hawaii, fifteen hundred miles east of the Philippines, and fifteen hundred miles south ofJapan. Saipan is seventeen miles long and about fiveand one half miles across at its widest point. It is the most northerly ofthe inhabited islands closest toJapan and one hundred and tw'enty miles from Guam. Guam is the largest island in the Marianas chain. ByJuly 1945, a thousand B-29s were taking off from Saipan, Tinian , and Guam to bombJapan. The Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the A-bomb, took offfrom Tinian. As we made our final approach to Saipan, the control tower warned us that there was only one runway. It was only seven thousand feet long, with two thousand feet unpaved. I noticed that it ended on the edge ofa cliffabove the Pacific. I wondered ifthe runway would be adequate when our planes were taking off for Tokyo with a full bomb and fuel load. I knew it would be a hairy situation if they lost power on takeoff. Saipan's barren landscape reminded me ofMuroc in 1942. There were only three small Quonset huts and no hangars, hardstands, or 187 188 WITH THE POSSUM AND THE EAGLE revetments for the aircraft, which were parked in a row along the runway . Hansell's staff, the aircrews, and ground personnel all lived in tents. Heavy bombing, shelling, and artillery fire had decimated almost all of the island's tropical vegetation during the invasion. Sugar cane had been the island's chief crop, but it was all destroyed during the fighting. The dead vegetation was covered with millions offlies. The army sprayed the area with DDT, but it had not made much progress. All of the prewar buildings were destroyed. Itwas the first time I had observed the devastation inflicted by ground fighting. I looked to the north and saw a barren mountain called Topatchau . It had been the scene ofmuch bitter fighting. I talked to some marines who had remained to mop up the remnants of the Japanese resistance. They told me they would never forget the mass suicide ofmost ofthe survivingJapanese civilians and soldiers. They had retreated to the coral caves and gullies on the north end of the island . There, screaming "banzai," they had jumped off eight-hundred -foot cliffs into the sea. Some of them were mothers holding small children in their arms. They had been told our troops would massacre them all. It was a totally different environment and war than I had encountered in Europe. I would have a lot of adjusting to do. I asked if there were any surviving natives. They said there were a few Chamorros, the mixed-blood descendants of Spanish and Philippine soldiers and local islanders. The Japanese had treated them harshly and most of them were friendly to our troops. Hansell had landed on Saipan the previous day. He flew in from Washington after conferring with Marshall and Arnold, and Hansell's successor as chiefofstaffof the Twentieth Air Force, Brig. Gen. Lauris Norstad. Marshall told him that the president was concerned about the exorbitant casualties that would result if we invadedJapan . He wanted B-29 operations to start from the Marianas by mid-November. Hansell promised Marshall and Arnold he would comply. Privately, Hansell worried about his promise. He feared that the crews and aircraft would have a hard time achieving readiness that quickly. He was also disturbed by comments Norstad had made...

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