The Guam assault by the Third Marine Division and the First Marine Provisional Brigade came July 20, 1944, after a 17-day aerial and naval bombardment which established a record tonnage of explosives dropped on a Japanese position. Opposition on the beaches, as at Saipan, was vigorous and Marines in this wave leap from their LVT(1) amphibious tractor for the shelter of the sand dunes. The Marine advance was steady and the former American possession, captured by the Japanese on December 10, 1941, was completely won by August 9, 1944.
