Tarawa (1)

LVT out of commission.

The Battle of Tarawa was one of the more terrible American experiences in the Pacific theatre of World War Two. It was one that would shape the future of amphibious assaults.

In late 1943, the United States launched attacks in the central Pacific. These were meant to speed up victory in the war by drawing Japanese forces away from larger offensives. The Tarawa atoll, part of the Gilbert Islands, was one of the targets of this advance.

Tarawa is made of fifteen small islands in the shape of a triangle, their total land area only twelve square miles. In the center is a lagoon, and reefs shelter many parts of the atoll. The British, who had governed the atoll before the war, were remarkably ill-informed about it. All their maps were over a century old, and they had no records of the tides and currents in the surrounding sea. Aerial reconnaissance provided some information about the islands and the Japanese defenses, but the attack would still be launched through a fog of ignorance.

The Japanese defenses included 200 artillery pieces. Thanks to the small, flat, featureless nature of the island, almost all of them could hit almost every one of its beaches. At the tops of those beaches were walls of palm logs and wire up to five feet high, behind them rifle pits and machine-guns. Behind those were fortified machine-gun emplacements of coral, logs and reinforced concrete, hidden with sand. And beyond those were pillboxes holding anti-tank guns and field guns.

Landing on Betio

The 2^nd Marines, who would head the landings on 20 November, believed that it was going to be a piece of cake. They could not have been more wrong.

On the night of 19 November, things started going wrong. Strong currents created chaos as troops transferred to their landing craft. Overnight air raids had not taken out the shore batteries as they were expected to. On the command ship, the USS Maryland, vibrations from the ship’s guns took out the communications equipment, disrupting coordination between the naval and air attacks and reducing their effectiveness.

At ten past nine in the morning, the first troops reached the island. Facing little resistance, they ran up the beaches to the barrier of the log wall. All bombardment had ended ten minutes before, and the Japanese had had time to recover. Now facing ready defenders, most of the Americans became pinned down outside the wall.

Reefs surrounded many of the beaches 800 to 1,200 yards out. The water above them was shallower than the Americans had hoped, and most of the Amtracs became stuck. The soldiers had to disembark and wade ashore under enemy fire, some of them vanishing into holes in the reef and drowning. Officers and NCOs led the way and most were killed, leaving the troops leaderless. Communications equipment became waterlogged and failed. Troops became scattered by Japanese fire.

One of the problems with the operation was a lack of sufficient transports. Even as the second wave of men was landing, and with them the first tanks, the Amtracs were being sent back for more men. The numbers that should have given the Americans a huge advantage were not in place until late on.

Fighting on Betio, Tarawa

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To be continued….

(The main fighting was on Betio (rhymes with ratio); but the pronunciation was difficult over the radios, so the battles became known by the the name of the atoll – Tarawa.]

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Edward Byers, US Navy SEAL, received his Medal of Honor…

Edward Byers

 

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/navy-seal-edward-byers-breaks-secrecy-receive-medal-honor-n527971

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Military Humor – 

Old Sad Sack

The funnier side of army life.

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Farewell Salutes – 

Charles Altman – Birmingham, AL; US Army, WWII & Korea

Randolph Chavez – Hayden, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO

Oscar Flick – Norton, IN; US Army, WWII

William Henehan – Bobota, NJ; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT

George Kennedy – NYC, NY; US Army (16 years), Capt., (Beloved actor)

Glenn Morehouse – St. Belen, NM; US Navy, WWII

Ronald Paulsen – Masterton, NZ; RNZ Air Force # 435335, WWII

Lawrence Schiller – Calgary, CAN; RC Navy, WWII

Raymond Tronzo – Punxsutawney, PA; US Army Air Corps, Korea

Don Willoughby – Detroit, MI; US Navy, WWII

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Click on still images to enlarge.

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