and 18 of his seamen, plus wounding 47. Battle The 4th Marine Division landed on 24 July 1944, supported by naval bombardment and marine artillery firing across the strait from Saipan. With the help of the Seabees, the Marines were able to land along the Northwest coast with its two small beaches and low coral. The rest of the island had coral cliffs up to high at the water's edge negating any assault plans. Commodore Paul J. Halloran (CEC) Seabee theater commander provided drawings of a conceptual landing ramp for the 18th and 121st Construction Battalions to fabricate. To construct these ramps, the plans called for the Seabees to mount steel beams salvaged from Saipan's abandoned sugar mill on LVT-2s. If they worked they would allow the Marines to outflank Tinian's prepared defenses. General Harry Schmidt was skeptical and ordered that the ramps be put through a 100-vehicle use test. The Seabee creation was named a Doodlebug. It worked exactly as the Marines had hoped. A successful feint for the major settlement of Tinian town diverted defenders from the actual landing site on the north of the island. The feint withstood a series of night counterattacks supported by tanks and the 2nd Marine Division landed the next day. Another piece of Seabee handiwork was brought across from Saipan: the 24 "Satan" mechanized flamethrowers that General Holland Smith USMC had requested from the Army's CWS Flame Tank Group in Hawaii. The terrain on Tinian was much more conducive to their use than Saipan. Saipan and Tinian served as training grounds for the tank crews and proving grounds for the Marine Corps. The weather worsened on 28 July, damaging the pontoon causeways and interrupting the unloading of supplies. By 29 July, the Americans had captured half the island, and on 30 July, the 4th Marine Division occupied Tinian town and Airfield No. 4. Japanese remnants made a final stand in the caves and ravines of a limestone ridge on the south portion of the island, making probes and counterattacks into the Marine lines. Resistance continued through 3 August, with some civilians murdered by the Japanese. Aftermath By 10 August 1944, 13,000 Japanese civilians were interned, but up to 4,000 were dead through suicide, murdered by Japanese troops, or killed in combat. The garrison on Aguiguan Island off the southwest cape of Tinian, commanded by Lieutenant Kinichi Yamada, held out until the end