Customer Reviews

Battling for Saipan

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Mr. O'Brien gives a vivid detail of the 105ths movements from the landing on the beaches of Saipan to the final evacuation from the Gyokusai attach in Tanapag. He follows his uncle Lt. Col. William J. O'Brien from battle to battle all the time merging stories of the hundreds of other men who fought along side him. Giving an almost play by play of scirmishes from survivors stories. I couldn't put it down. I will never Hash through the jungles here the same way again! Infact, I went to the memorial and looked for his name of the thousands that are there and I found it. As you look at it you face to about the appoximate location of Tagapag village.

I've often wondered over the years how justifiable Howlin' Mad Smith's relief of Ralph Smith was during the battle for Saipan. I've suspected that there was more to the issue than meets the eye and that Holland Smith may have had more of a point to prove than cause for action. O'Brien's book points solidly in that direction although his perspective has to be skewed toward the 27th and I believe that he wrote the book starting from that viewpoint. However the most moving and impressive part of this account for me was the details of the heroism of Sgt. Thomas A. Baker. I first encountered his story in an obscure internet tribute one Veteran's Day a few years back. Reading his citation I wondered what kind of man could be capable of such feats. O'Brien's history contains more details of this remarkable soldier than I've found elsewhere, but still left me yearning to find out more about him. Who knows, maybe someday I'll write his definitive history!

The battle for Saipan was a pivotal moment in the Pacific war. It marked the transition from the early campaigns defined by prolonged guerilla warfare in the jungle to short but ferocious head on assaults. The combat there in June and July of 1944 is described well by Francis O'Brien in his book "Battling for Saipan." O'Brien is the nephew of Lt. Col. William O'Brien who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his effort to defend his battalion perimeter during the final days of the battle.

While this book is far from perfect, I found its focus (the 27th Infantry Division) to be quite interesting on several levels. The 27th was one of the rare Army divisions assigned to Nimitz's Central Pacific drive. It is perhaps known most for the controversy surrounding the relief of its' commanding General Ralph Smith during the battle for Saipan. The issue has created some of the bitterest examples of Army/Navy struggle for control during the Pacific war. O'Brien's book doesn't really address these issues too much as it has been covered in other books such as Harry Gailey's "Howling Mad vs. the Army." I think he feels this ugly inter-service rivalry cast a dark shadow over the 27th and denigrated their tactical operations on Saipan, which is the focus of the book. While I think it is true that the division was far from being the "one of the best trained and equipped divisions in the army" as O'Brien states in his book, the fact they are a much maligned unit is somewhat unfair. Their efforts on Saipan were certainly not error-free, but the rift between Army/Navy policy for Island hopping strategy caused their campaign on Saipan to be defined by criticism.

At the heart of this problem was the differing strategy of each branch of service. The Navy was adamant upon ground operations being conducted with the utmost speed to free up the fleet from infantry support (which often resulted in excessive infantry casualties i.e. Peleliu), while the Army favored an approach championed by MacArthur which favored siege tactics and the heavy employment of artillery and envelopment to eliminate enemy positions. Needles to say the Army and Navy were quite often at odds for control of the Pacific, and the 27th's experience on Saipan was an unfortunate consequence of the rivalry. Marine General Holland Smith felt the division was "yellow" and afraid to fight because of their relatively slow approach, when in actuality it was more a question of the division becoming a scapegoat to denigrate Army tactics in the Pacific. That said, the 27th was not one of the best divisions in the army (like the author claims); while their sub par preformance on Saipan could be chalked up to inexperience and politics, there was no excuse for the breakdown of the division on Okinawa, causing Army general Buckner to pull them off the line after a couple of weeks. There could be no doubt that the unit had some serious problems and though their fighting on Saipan was be defined by controversy, but the division still had many brave men.

O'Brien's book is written with this in mind and is attempting to compensate for the 27th's poor reputation. Although his book is nearly free of criticism (some of which is valid such as the 27th's poor perimeter defense before the July 7th Banzai attack) he does make some valid points in defense of the division. The first action the division sees is on Nafutan point where Holland smith underestimates Japanese forces (he thought 300, the actual figure was near a 1,000) who were dug into the coral in a fashion reminiscent of Peleliu. After Nafutan, Holland Smith assigns the 27th to take the most heavily defended sector on the island, "Death Valley" then relieves Ralph Smith because he cannot secure the objective with enough speed. By this point it seems that the 27th was assigned two of the toughest points on the island to clear and then denigrated when they can't do it immediately. It does seem as if the Marine Generals "have it in for the 27th", perhaps in an effort to expose Army incompetence, thereby gaining more control of the Pacific.

The fact that O'Brien's book doesn't cover these issues in depth gives his work more room for the tactical movements of the 27th. The fight in Nafutan and the Banzai attack are done quite well with first person accounts mixed with general history of the battle. O'Brien's choice to skip over the battle for Death Valley was disappointing, but this aside the book is a solid move by move account of Saipan, but the writiing is given to an obvious bias in redeeming the tarnished reputation of the 27th.

Like your Reader from Texas, I am not a marine but I have read many books about the war in the Pacific and the Smith vs. Smith incident.

HM Smith was not one of the great captains of WWII. As Professor Harry Gailey points out in "Howlin' Mad Versus the Army", Saipan was the first and only time HM Smith ever had hands on responsibility for troops in battle. He did not conduct a very brilliant campaign. He constantly underestimated the strength of Japanese resistance on the island, made his plans based on his underestimates, and then blamed the Army Division and its Commander, MG Ralph Smith, when his plans did not work.

The 27th Infantry Division was the most unfairly maligned unit of WWII, Its commander, MG Ralph Smith was the most unfairly vilified leader of WWII. This happened because the Marine Corps and its advocates needed to create and maintain the legend that HM Smith was a great captain, needed to explain away HM Smith's less than brilliant performance on Saipan.

This book, while not a thoroughly researched as Edmund Smith's 27th ID's History or Professor Gailey's "Howlin' Mad Versus the Army", it is an honest attempt to tell the correct history, that the 27th ID fought hard and fought well on Saipan.

I found Francis O'Brien's work on the 27th Division to be moving account of an army unit that served its country well at the expense of criticism. His account of the 1st battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, was especially touching, and, I feel, deserves mention along with other memorable units of WWII.

However, I do agree that O'Brien's work does lack much objectiveness at the expense of defending the reputation of the 27th Division. This was essentially the purpose of his book, and there are certainly more objective accounts of the 27th to be found elsewhere, some of whom O'Brien refers to in his book.

Nonetheless, I found this book to be an enjoyable read and quite a service to those who fought and died with the "New York Division" in WWII.

As O'Brien states at the end of his preface: "I trust I have shown that [the families'] fathers, sons, uncles, and brothers served their country honrably and well in WWII."

This book was interesting but it had several flaws. It was a basically a defense of the army's 27th Infantry Division during the Saipan invasion during the Pacific war. It was at Saipan where the 27th did not measure up to marine units.

The author claims to be objective but I find that difficult to believe. He is writing about his own Uncle, William O'Brien. He was also writing about the 27th Infantry Division, a national guard unit which consisted of men from his own home town and area. I detected a bias in defense of the 27th and a bias against Marine General "Howlin Mad" Smith who relieved 27th Division commander General Ralph Smith.

The author claims that this was the one and only battle where army troops fought under the command of the a marine general. This was untrue. Army units fought successfully under marine General Vandergrift at Guadalcanal in 1942, under marine General Geiger at Peleliu in 1944, and briefly under Geiger again at Okinawa in 1945. The author blames marine command for many of the 27th's problems but has a shaky arguement.

The author also defend the 27th divison as "one of the best trained units in the Pacific". I have read many other books and many other authors do NOT share this opinion of the 27th. Many other authors have a much lower opinion of the 27th. In fact, at Okinawa in 1945, an army general withdrew the 27th from the main battle and sent it to the rear for "garrison duty". Let's be realistic and honest. Not all members of the armed forces in WW II were "the elite". Units differed in quality. Some units were excellent and some were of lesser quality.

Note: I am NOT a marine but just someone who has read many books on this subject.