U.S. Marines establish beachhead on Japanese-held Saipan Island.

U.S. Marines establish beachhead on Japanese-held Saipan Island. American Marines, wearing camouflage dress, spread out along a beach on Saipan Island, in the Marianas group of the Central Pacific, where they landed on June 14, 1944. The beached vessel (left) is an abandoned Japanese landing craft. Hundreds of carrier-based American planes played the same role at Saipan as land-based aircraft which supported Allied landings in France, by bombing and strafing enemy fortifications and gun emplacements. Within a week after their landings, U.S. infantrymen controlled half of Saipan island, key base in the Marianas which forms a vital link in Japan's inner defense line.