Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands and anti-aircraft guns shot down about 37 Japanese aircraft during these raids. After the Marianas began to come under attack, the United States military stepped up its raids on the Japanese-held islands which could be used to launch raids on the B-29 bases. Particular attention was given to Iwo Jima, as it was correctly assumed that the Japanese aircraft which attacked the Marianas were flying from Japan and staging through the island en route to their targets. Following the first raid against Saipan in November, XXI Bomber Command B-29s were dispatched against Iwo Jima's airfields on November 5 and 8.
Banks Islands Ureparapara, is Vet Tagde (Vot Tande or Vot Ganai), an extinct volcano that last erupted 3.5 million years ago. The Rowa Islands (or Reef Islands) are a few very small, low islands on a coral atoll. Mota Lava is the largest and highest (411 m) of this eastern chain of islands; off its southern coast, attached by high corals that one can wade through at low tide, is the tiny islet of Ra. Mota, Merig and Merelava complete the southeastern part of the archipelago. The population of the Banks Islands speak fifteen different languages. Several are endangered, being spoken by