Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam

With the instantaneous opening of a two-hour ever-increasing bombardment by six battleships nine cruisers a host of destroyers and rocket ships laying their wrath on the wrinkled black hills rice paddies cliffs and caves that faced the attacking fleet on the west side of the island Liberation Day for Guam began at 0530 21 July 1944. Fourteen-inch guns belching fire and thunder set spectacular blossoms of flame sprouting on the fields and hillsides inland. It was all very plain to see in the glow of star shells which illuminated the shore the ships and the troops who lined the rails of the transports and LSTs (Landing Ships Tank) which brought the U.S. Marines and soldiers there. The barrages which at daylight would be enlarged by the strafing and bombing of carrier fighters bombers and torpedo planes were the grand climax of 13 days (since 8 July) of unceasing prelanding softening-up. Indeed carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 had been blasting Guam airfields since 11 June while the first bombardment of the B-24s and B-25s of the Fifth Seventh and Thirteenth Air Forces fell as early as 6 May. This is book is about the Liberation of Guam in particular Marines involved in the Recapture of Guam.