On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands.

Saipan and neighboring Tinian are located about 2,670 km east of Manila, in the Philippines, 6000 km (3700 mi) west of Honolulu, Hawaii, and about 200 km (125 mi) north east of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean.