U.S. landing craft head for Guam.

U.S. landing craft head for Guam. Churning the sea to a lather, amphibious tractors and landing craft speed for Guam Island in the Central Pacific, as U.S. Marines and Army troops began the assault on the American island that was seized by the Japanese two and one half years earlier. An LST (landing ship-tank) is at the left, and a protecting U.S. cruiser that covered the landings is in the background. The landings began July 20, 1944, and seven days later U.S. sovereignty was reestablished in ceremonies conducted by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific fleet. Orote peninsula fell July 29, and on July 31, American warships steamed triumphantly into Sumay Naval Base while carrier planes landed on the Orote airfield. The recapture of Guam, together with the capture of Japanese Saipan and Tinian islands in the Marianas, will give the Allies key bases only 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from both the Japanese homeland and the Philippine Islands.