Battlefield survey of US LVT casualties near Agat during the Battle of Guam on July 21st 1944

The Battle of Guam (July 21st - August 10th 1944) was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of the same name in the Mariana Islands that had been captured by the Japanese from the United States in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War.

On July 21st at 08:32 the 22nd Marines landed on beaches around Agat while the 4th Marines landed at Bangi Point to the north. Opposing the U.S. landings were 22,000 Japanese troops stationed on the island. The most intense fighting struck the other units of III Amphibious Corps to the north, which held through heavy Japanese counterattacks.

The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade encountered lighter resistance on the southern beaches, but nonetheless fought a substantial Japanese force occupying Ga'an Point, between the two regiments' landing zones. Japanese defenders had built fortifications into the point, including Type 41 75mm Mountain Guns which had gone undetected in U.S. reconnaissance probes. The view from these fortifications of can be seen in the beginning of the footage, perfectly sited for enfilading fire on the invasion force. One of the guns can be seen at 1:10 and was credited with knocking out over ten LVTs before being silenced.

The Type 41 was a license-built copy of the Krupp M1908 mountain gun and was an obsolete design by this period, however it proved to be extremely effective in this particular action. The LVTs it was facing were armored against small arms fire but not much else and direct hits from 75mm shells disabled tens of vehicles while causing casualties among the men on board, most of whom were in open-topped variants. The clips were shot on July 23rd, two days after the beachhead was established, for the purpose of recording losses and battle damage for future evaluation.

At 2:00 an LVT(A)-1 support variant with an enclosed cabin and 37mm gun turret is visible. While better protected than the troop carriers it was still vulnerable to direct fire artillery. This particular example suffered two hits to the starboard side in rapid succession that disabled the track and killed two of the six man crew, forcing the rest to abandon the vehicle.

Another LVT(A)-1 is visible at 2:56 that took a direct hit while on the edge of the reef which knocked out the 37mm turret and one of the two machine guns as well as killing one and wounding three of the men on board. In spite of this damage it continued to the beach to support the infantry with its remaining machine gun until it was abandoned.

Apart from direct fire from fortifications, the vehicles also had to face indirect fire from mortars as well as mines, with some such casualties visible at 4:54