The Battle of Guam was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Mariana Islands captured by the Japanese from the United States in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The battle was a critical component of Operation Forager. The recapture of Guam and the broader Mariana and Palau Islands campaign resulted in the destruction of much of Japan's naval air power and allowed the United States to establish large airbases from which it could bomb the Japanese home islands with its new strategic bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
U.S. Army officers planting the American flag
Holland M. Smith, USMC
Roy S. Geiger, USMC
Allen H. Turnage, USMC
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, and the most populous village is Dededo. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States, reckoned from the geographic center of the U.S. In Oceania, Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia.
Reception of the Manila Galleon by the Chamorro in the Ladrones Islands, c. 1590 Boxer Codex
The main street of Hagåtña c. 1899–1900
U.S. Marines walk through the ruins of Hagåtña, July 1944.
A photograph of Guam from space captured by NASA's now decommissioned Earth observation satellite, Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), December 2011