NAVY SAILOR''S GROUPING INCLUDING DIARY ON THE ASSAULT ON SAIPAN

NAVY SAILOR''S GROUPING INCLUDING DIARY ON THE ASSAULT ON SAIPAN

Brief but detailed diary of Seaman 1st Class Russell Charles Burger who served aboard LST-278 during the Marine assault on Saipan and other islands during the Marianas Campaign, from June 15 to July 28, 1944. The text concerning landings is 13pp. 12mo. in pencil, with additional entries, all in a black faux leather pocket notebook. The text is disbound, and it appears some of the first pages have been lost. Burger clearly wrote the diary as a keepsake for his wife should he be killed in action. His diary starts rather suddenly while his vessel is in formation with about 100 other ships near Hawaii. His account reads, in part: ""...of their crews and a lot of marines. About 61 are missing. 11 were recovered including 3 dead. We were lucky. A hell of wind and swells as big as buildings...General Quarters - All ships (approx 100) Regular battle drill...laying smoke screens...Have been maneuvering around Oahu, Maui, Lanai and Molokai. Sat. 20th Stayed anchored off Hawaii...Wed. 24th...went over to air base and bought $350.00 worth of cigarettes...Thurs 25th Gor underway for Eniwetok, Marshall Island Group. Our striking point is Saipan...12 more LSTs joined this afternoon. Total ships in our group to date 50...Sunday 28th in sub danger...picked up some more LSTs today...listening to Radio Tokyo. We are in battle danger zone. Jap subs and aircraft are near. Sat. June 3 Zig-zagging in enemy sub area...will be just right for a bombing by morn...Monday June 5...Have come within 35 miles of Jap bases. Hope we're that lucky on our way to Saipan...Friday June 9th Shoved off today...to make one of the largest and most important invasions of this war...June 11 - Three more days until D Day. Air Force supposed to start plastering Saipan and have all installations knocked out before we go in...June 13...They are bombing hell out of Saipan today...we strike in the morning...Thursday June 15th 4:00 AM See plenty of gunfire...Just said prayer. I love my honey more than anything in the world. 5:30 started firing on Saipan and Tinian 6:30 Planes are dive bombing battleships and destroyers we are raisong hell 7:10 Just started to land LVT's and troops All well so far. 9:00 AM Our forces have landed. Have only seen two of our planes shot down so far. Both pilots bailed out and were picked up by our boats. 9:30 We are now headed for the beach and might land...4:00 we are about 2000 yds. from shore. A lot of small boats have come back with wounded...about 15 to 25 Jap ships on fire and sinking...5:30 PM Started to be attacked by Jap planes...they turned and run without dropping a bomb 8:00 pm still shelling the islands. The sky is red from fires. Friday 16th Still bombing and shelling. Landed second wave of assault troops...casualties are light compared with the amount of men...we are just pulling alongside a destroyer to deliver 5 inch ammunition...8:00 PM...still shelling. Don't see how there could be a Jap on the island. Saturday 17th Got quite a counter attack last night and drove some of our troops off the beach...a small group of planes attacked us...one PC was sunk..."" He describes how his LST is directed away from the island, only to return again early on the 19. He continues: ""...The bastards got a lot of them on the first wave landing. We had 17 tanks with us and they knocked out all but six. Had a flash red...I think they are using us as bait to bring out the Jap fleet. A huge air attack by Japs yesterday and they lost 300 planes..."" Burger also lists the various signals used aboard the ship for "General Quarters"", ""Fire Alarm"", etc., as well as including various phrases in Japanese. WITH: Burger's photograph album (disbound) containing approx. 150 pre-war photographs including some postcard photographs of Burger, family members, and his fellow sailors in Hawaii, San Jose, etc. WITH: a May 21, 1944 letter from Burger to his wife which explains the loss of the Marines mentioned at the start of the diary: ""...We his a strong wind...three of our LSTs lost some boats over the side and some men were lost. They picked up a few alive and some dead and there is something like 60 missing..."" WITH: a copy of the newspaper ""The Texas Toreador"", 4pp. 8vo., Oct. 29, 1927, apparently from the USS TEXAS. Overall good to very good.