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BEAUFORT, S.C. - November 2015 marks the 72nd anniversary of the Battle of Tarawa. Tarawa was the first Marine attack in the central Pacific region during World War II and is remembered as one of the fiercest engagements of the campaign.
The battle raged from Nov. 20-23, 1943, on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. An atoll is a coral reef that breaches the surface of the ocean and forms an island.
It became necessary for the Marines to capture Tarawa following the fighting of Guadalcanal. The island, roughly the size of Central Park in Manhattan, N.Y., served as the site of the first American offensive in the central Pacific region.
The Battle of Tarawa was one of the most tenacious and bloodiest battles in Marine Corps History. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Korean and U.S. service members died in the three-day battle.
An American force of 17 aircraft carriers, 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 66 destroyers and 36 transport ships moved to the Gilbert Islands Nov. 20. This was the largest force assembled in the Pacific for a single operation.
When the U.S. force approached Tarawa, Japanese forces opened fire with artillery batteries. The Americans responded with a counter battery that neutralized a majority of the Japanese artillery.
The Marines approached the shore using small amphibious vehicles to reach the beach at low tide, forcing the infantry to wade through waist deep water to reach dry land. Enemy machine gun fire rained down on the men from the shore. The Marines who made it ashore secured the beach and waited for reinforcements.
On the morning of Nov. 21, tanks and artillery were brought by boat allowing the Marines to advance on the Japanese entrenched inland. U.S. forces captured the majority of the island on this day.
Marines pursued the remaining Japanese forces and an airstrip held by the enemy Nov. 22. By the evening, the remaining Japanese forces were either pushed back into the tiny amount of land to the east of the airstrip, or operating in several isolated pockets around the island.
When the fighting was finished only 17 Japanese soldiers survived out of the 4,700 who fought. Nearly 1,700 U.S. service members were killed and 2,101 were wounded.
“The capture of Tarawa knocked down the front door to the Japanese in the Central Pacific,” said Adm. Chester Nimitz, the commander-in-chief of U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II.
The legacy of Tarawa lives on in the Marine Corps today. The Marines faced overwhelming odds but persevered until victorious.
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 11.19.2015 14:39 |
| Story ID: | 182372 |
| Location: | BEAUFORT, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 72 years later: Remembering the battle of Tarawa, by Cpl Jonah Lovy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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