Blue Beach faced heavier machine gun and mortar fire, but it too was able to get ashore with minimal casualties. Unbeknownst to them, this was all part of the Japanese new "defense in depth strategy" that they and the 1st Marine Division would also face on nearby Peleliu. The Japanese strategy was to now allow the Americans to land rather unopposed and move inward, with "in depth" defensive lines further inland, and initiating nighttime counterattacks en masse while the Americans were still heavily congregated on the beachheads, attempting to drive them back into the sea. Suicidal Banzai charges as seen on Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Saipan were forbidden. Both RCTs were counterattacked during the night, but achieved little more than quickly depleting valuable troops Goto could not replace. Late the next day on 18 September, both RCTs were able to link up and push on to their respective objectives. By the end of the third day, 19 September, the RCTs had cut the island in half, with two pockets of resistance. The main Japanese force to the Northwest on Ramauldo Hill and the other dug in at the Green Beach defensive fortifications. After two days of harsh fighting and heavy casualties, the 321st had overrun the Green Beach defenses and the 400 dug in soldiers by flanking them from behind. At a cost of 300 casualties, the southern half of the island was now declared secure. While the 321st was embattled to the south, the 322nd RCT moved across the island to the western coast securing the only inhabited area of the island, "Saipan Town", then swept north towards "Shrine Hill" and Romauldo Hill where the main 750 strong force was awaiting them, heavily dug in to the island's most formidable and difficult terrain. With the southern half of the island now secured, on 23 September, the 321st RCT was dispatched to nearby Peleliu, where the 1st Marine Division was taking massive casualties and nearing becoming combat ineffective as a unit. Securing the rest of Angaur now fell to the 3,200 men of the 322nd RCT. The Japanese defensive network on Romauldo Hill and the intense fighting that would take place there was in effect, a microcosm of the brutal fighting taking place in the Umurbrogol pocket on nearby Peleliu by the Marines, and later the 81st Infantry Division. The entire hill was honeycombed with interconnecting caves, pillboxes and bunkers built