U.S. warships pour destructions into Saipan. The big guns of a U.S.

U.S. warships pour destructions into Saipan. The big guns of a U.S. warship, part of a task force supporting the landing of American troops on Saipan Island in the Central Pacific, let go with a broadside against the entrenched enemy. In one of the most concentrated bombardments of the war, U.S. ships poured more than 5,000 tons (4,500 metric tons) of projectiles into the key Japanese base before American troops stormed ashore on June 14, 1944. All organized Japanese resistance collapsed 25 days later, after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Possession of Saipan, key island in the enemy's inner defense ring, puts United Nations forces only 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from Tokyo, and isolates some 300,000 Japanese and scattered islands of the Central and South Pacific. Naval bombardments have been used effectively in both the Pacific and European war theaters to "soften up" shore installations before troop landings.