SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — One of the bloodiest attacks in the Pacific during World War II is being remembered this week by the dwindling number of American veterans who survived the Japanese onslaught 70 years ago.
The Army’s 27th Infantry Division, a former New York National Guard unit, bore the brunt of Japan’s largest mass suicide attack, launched before dawn on July 7, 1944, on the island of Saipan.
The division’s 105th Regiment saw more than 400 killed and 500 wounded during the attack by more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors. It landed on Saipan after the US Marines made the initial beach assault on June 15, 1944.
Scores of New Yorkers in the 27th Division died at Saipan, many of them during the July 7 attack.
Even after seven decades, Wilfred ‘‘Spike’’ Mailloux will not talk about the battle unless longtime friend John Sidur is by his side.
It was Sidur who found the severely wounded Mailloux hours after both members of the 27th Infantry Division survived the attack.
‘‘He found me in the mud,’’ Mailloux recounted during a visit to the New York State Military Museum to attend a presentation on the battle’s 70th anniversary.
Mailloux was stabbed in the thigh by a Japanese officer wielding a long knife. Unable to move, he lay in a muddy ditch for hours before Sidur, a 26-year-old sergeant, found him.