Banzai meets Brooklyn

Soldiers of the New York National Guard’s 105th Infantry Regiment on Saipan during World War II.

(New York State Military Museum)

Formerly the 2nd New York Volunteer Infantry of the 19th Century, the 105th had a long and distinguished record in federal service including the Civil War, the Spanish-America War, the Mexican Border dispute of 1916, World War I, and finally World War II.

Assigned to the 27th “New York” Infantry Division on 15 October 1940, after training at Alabama’s Fort McClellan, the New Yorkers shipped out for the Pacific and cleared Butaritari Island in the Makin Atoll campaign before landing on Saipan 17 June 1944.

The fighting on the long-held Japanese territory continued up Mount Tapotchau where the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th in the predawn hours of 7 July “bore the brunt of the largest Banzai charge of the entire war,” standing their ground against 4,300…