Wrecked Japanese planes bitter captured airdrome on Saipan Island. U.S.

Wrecked Japanese planes bitter captured airdrome on Saipan Island. U.S. bombardments demolished Japanese airplanes and hangars on Aslite airdrome, most important airfield on Saipan Island of the Marianas group in the Southwest Pacific. The Aslite airfield was captured by American forces on June 22, 1944, and renamed Isely Field in honor of Commander Robert Henry Isely of the U.S. Navy who has shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire while leading a bombing attack against the field. Since the first American landing on Saipan on June 14, more than 60 per cent of the southern half of the island had been liberated. The strategic base is within the inner defense zone of the Japanese homeland, less than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away. In naval and air operations off the Marianas from June 10, to June 23, U.S. forces destroyed 747 Japanese airplanes.