D+6 was enjoyed by all - for a change! We rested on our positions; caught up on sorely needed sleep; got some water (which had been conspicuous by its absence); and even had a good hot meal. For we got our first 10-in-1 rations. Did they ever taste good to our hungry palates, surfeited as they were with K rations!3/25 certainly needed the rest. From hidden positions on Hill 500, Japanese infiltrators armed with grenades, bayonets, and "idiot sticks" (knives tied to long poles to make a crude spear). They cause minor chaos, but for thirty one Japanese lives they succeeded only in providing a nervous night for the battalion.
- Unknown Marine quoted in Captain John C. Chapin's Breaching the Marianas: The Battle For Saipan
General Holland M. Smith (known almost universally as Howlin' Mad Smith) granted his Marine divisions a day of relative rest, in preparation for the resumption of the attack on the 22nd. Patrols from the 24th and 25th Marines explored up to 1500 yards in front of their regiments without detecting any sizable enemy force, and with the exception of unlucky details assigned to clearing out pockets of resistance, the men enjoyed a welcome respite - their first day off since the landing.
They would need the rest. An ammunition dump belonging to the 2nd Marine Division detonated that night (the cause was unknown, though a single Japanese rifleman with incendiary bullets seems to be the accepted cause) and as the men struggled to put out the blaze, another explosion shook the beach, hitting many Marines with fragments of their own artillery and mortar shells. Even on a day of rest, the men were in constant danger.
Wounded:
Corporal Blaine Riley
Corporal James A. Lemma
Total: 2
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