Banzai Tank Charge - Saipan 1944

Sherman: "So this is what it feels like to be a tiger"

My grandfather was a truck driver for the US Army on Saipan, 1944-45. He would tell us stories of finding Japanese hiding in the showers, or stealing food, all the way until the war ended.

"Fix bayonets!" "But-" "Onto the tanks!"

If Mark Felton was in town, I would invite him to dinner and I would do all the listening

I read somewhere that during this battle the Marine tankers at first thought the Japanese tanks were quite tough as their armor piercing shells weren’t appearing to have much effect on them. They realized that the shells were just punching right through the thinly armored tanks without hitting anything vital on the way through. So they switched to high explosive shells and just obliterated them.

Also of note during this battle was the distinguished service of Dr. Ben Salomon, DDS, who was acting as a surgeon due to injuries to the medical officer. Salomon's field hospital was set up immediately behind the front lines and after a Japanese assault was overrun by Japanese infantry. Salomon ordered the wounded to be evacuated and manned a machine gun to provide cover for the retreating medical staff and patients. When the Army retook the position a few days later they found Salomon dead, with dozens of bullet holes and bayonet wounds. They also found 98 dead Japanese soldiers in the proximity of Salomon's machine gun. Salomon was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

I’m from Saipan and I can tell you those tanks are usually found rusting in the jungle but there are a few abandoned ones near our airport 🤟🏼🇲🇵🇲🇵

It's basically a rule at this point. The second you see a Mark Felton video you click on it. No questions asked

My father was with the 27th infantry division on Saipan. Bless the men who fought in WWII!

“This tank holds 3 men, Japanese size”. No “filter” there 😂

My wifes Grandfather fought in the British Navy onboard a destroyer during world war two. He told me a story about how they once depth charged and destroyed a Japanese Sub with oil and debris floating to the surface. He said as the crew looked overboard to the see the wreckage there was no cheering or shouting, just mutterings of "poor buggers!".

No discussion of the Saipan invasion should go without the story of Sgt. Thomas A. Baker. During the invasion, he distinguished himself after freeing his pinned down squad from a MG bunker by running within 100 yards of it and blasting it with a bazooka. Some days later, he was involved in that massive banzai charge, getting seriously wounded in the first wave of it, standing his ground and using any and all weapons he could till he ended up out of ammo and used his bare hands after his weapon had been shattered by enemy fire. Mortally wounded, they were forced to retreat but Baker insisted they leave him behind, only armed with a M1911A1 as he was sat up against a tree and stayed behind. When US forces retook the old positions, they found Baker's body with the empty pistol in hand, accompanied by 8 dead Japanese soldiers scattered in front of him. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

10:42 "A platoon of M4A2 Shermans arrived." It is interesting to hear this since there is not a lot of discussion about the A2 version. The vast majority of M4 Shermans were gas powered versions, whereas the M4A2 was powered by two GM diesels. Only the USMC used these versions in U.S. service. The A2 version was also exported under the Lend Lease program. Thanks again for yet another great program.

Wonder if anyone ever actually managed to knock out that wheel bracket with a rifle bullet.

Most people don't understand how small a lot of these islands are and how many troops per meter they had. Seriously some of the craziest fighting this world has ever seen.

My uncle operated a bulldozer on Saipan near the airport they were improving. He told me they actually had a plan in case the Japanese tanks broke through their lines. The idea was they would ram the tanks and flip them over because the tanks were lighter and the bulldozer blade was thicker then the tank's armor. Thankfully the tank attacks never got as far as the airfield! My uncle had helped knock out a pillbox on Iwo Jima with infantry following behind him. With the blade raised the Japanese defenders couldn't shoot them and once they got close they used a flame thrower to make the defenders duck then threw grenades inside to knock out the pillbox. My uncle received a commendation and a box of cookies from the infantry!

Mark is the famous Moff Felton, one of the greatest tacticians of the Empire, second only to Thrawn. The stormtroopers in the opening are his personal guards. Respect him!

I just love those old US Army instruction videos. The annunciation, the music behind it, the clear instruction, the well placed yet appropriate jokes

This battle was also called, “The Pacific D-Day,” bc the invasion fleet left Pearl Harbor the day before the Normandy invasion. The US had cut off all means of resupply for the Japanese soldiers bc of the disastrous outcome for Japan of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and Lt. General Saito (who eventually committed hara-kiri) ordered his soldiers to fight to the last man. This is why the Marine and Army soldiers were forced to kill more than 29,000 soldiers before the battle was over, bc the Japanese refused to surrender. My dad, a Marine, was in charge of directing one of the 300 amphibious landing vehicles up on the beach at Saipan. He had just turned 21 at the time, having fought in campaigns on some of the Solomon, Gilbert, Marshall, Gilbert, Mariana Islands (Saipan and also Titian), and would go on to Iwo Jima. He just couldn’t talk about his war experiences, only to say at the end of his life that he had refused VA services all through his life bc, “It’s for men who were wounded,” if you can believe it....miraculously, he never received a physical wound, and his survivor’s guilt was palpable. The other story he told me is that, when he told the driver where to put the empty landing vehicle on the beach of Iwo Jima, he jumped out one side, and his driver jumped out the other, right onto a land mine. Both of his legs were blown off, and my dad said he “never forgot how white his bones were.” That was it. Any attempt by any of his 7 kids to ask questions would either be met with stony silence, or he would look at me with tears in his eye, silently begging me to drop it. So I did. My brother asked once if dad saw the suicides of Japanese residents jumping off the cliffs to their deaths, and he said, “Yes, and babies, children thrown off.” No more. I cannot imagine what he (a 19 year old boy!!) And his buddies went through, first with the 2-day bombardment onboard ships—how could they ever sleep??—then with the 24-day hell on a 12 mile by 5.5 mile island, with no escape from the savage Japanese resistance. The Pacific War ruined my father’s mental health, as he suffered badly from PTSD, striking out in a rage with no reason, diving under the bed on stormy nights for 2 decades, drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol (I never saw him sober until I was 16, and didn’t know it), and carousing with his war buddies and women until my mother kicked him out after 20 years of marriage (I was 4). Even at that age, I was relieved he wasn’t living with us any more. After several suicide attempts, he was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which ran in his family....the trauma he suffered in the war activated his mental illness genes, and he was self medicating that and PTSD with alcohol. I really wish there had been help or treatment for the thousands upon thousands of men who suffered with that hellish condition, but more than that, I wish none of them had had to experience hell on earth in the first place! And I’ve studied WWII for 40 years, especially the social history in Britain and Europe between the world wars, solely bc of my need to understand an absent, traumatized, but ultimately heroic, father.

Ahh, time for my lunch date with Mark Felton.