29th Marine Regiment Merchandise

"Melanesia" -

The 29th Marine Regiment (29th Marines) is an inactive regiment of the United States Marine Corps. The last Marine Corps regiment activated for service in World War II, its First Battalion fought in the Battle of Saipan while attached to the 2nd Marine Division; the entire regiment also fought in Okinawa while attached to the 6th Marine Division, and took part in the occupation of Northern China following the war.

Originally an "orphan unit", the First Battalion of the 29th Marine Regiment was formed as the Second Separate Infantry Battalion in February 1944 and re-designated as 1/29 en-route to its first combat assignment, attached to the 2nd Marine Division as a second separate infantry battalion.

Following a month of operational training on the King Ranch in Hawaii, 1/29 went into combat during the Battle of Saipan with the Fleet Marine Force. During the Battle of Okinawa, the 29th Marines were due to be the reserve for the 6th Marine Division but was able to come ashore on the island on D-Day, 1 April 1945, due to the lack of resistance at the outset of the battle.

They initially swept through the northern Motobu Peninsula where except for heavy fighting during the Battle of Yae Take they met only moderate resistance from Japanese Forces. Following heavy fighting in the south the 6th Marine Division replaced the 27th Infantry Division on the western side of the island. The 29th made steady progress south until 12 May 1945 when on the outskirts of Naha, Okinawa the ran into a low, loaf shaped hill which was soon to be named Sugar Loaf Hill.

Sugar Loaf Hill was part of a complex of three hills that formed the western anchor of General Mitsuru Ushijima's Shuri Line defense. Originally the objective of the 22nd Marine Regiment, the 29th would relieve them on 16 May and troops sustaining heavy casualties over the course of the next few days while taking the hill. Marines made numerous frontal assaults on Sugar Loaf Hill and finally secured it on 18 May, 1945.

The 29th Marine Regiment was subsequently deactivated in 1946 as part of the post war drawdown of forces after World War II.