U.S. carrier force attacks Japanese base in Marianas.

U.S. carrier force attacks Japanese base in Marianas. Bombed Japanese planes go up in smoke on the Japanese airfield on Saipan, second largest island in the Marianas Islands, after hundreds of carrier-based planes from a U.S. Navy task force slashed at the major enemy supply and repair base in the West Pacific in an attack launched on Feb. 22, 1944. American flyers destroyed 135 Japanese planes against a loss of six U.S. aircraft; sank two Japanese ships, and damaged nine others during the attack.