Battle of Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa was a WW2 military engagement, which was fought between the US 2nd Marine Division, under Julian C. Smith, and the Imperial Japanese Naval Forces, led by Keiji Shibazaki, from November 20 to 23, 1943. The battlefield was the island of Betio, which was part of the Tarawa atoll, and it was the goriest and most viciously fought battle of the Island-Hopping Campaign of the Pacific Theater, which had began on August 7, 1942, with the landing of US troops on Guadalcanal. The main objective was the airfield. Result: US victory.

Summary

As part of Operation Galvanic, the men of the 2nd Battalion (2nd Regiment), sailed across the cove over shallow waters, and landed on Red Beach 2 at about 10:00 hours. Most of the LVT landing boats ran aground on the reef and the troops had to get out of them and wade through chest-deep waters under heavy machine gun fire. The other units of the 2nd Marine Division landed on Red Beach 1 and Read Beach 3, with all three landing sectors being located roughly on the northeastern coast of Betio. Many men did not make it to the shores as the boats that transported them were blown up by the Japanese with their 75 and 37mm guns.

By the end of the first day, all three beaches had been taken and secured but most of the men were still being pinned down by murderous machine gun fire that came from Japanese pillboxes and bunkers. Nevertheless, the marines were able to break out of the beachheads dashing towards the next protective features of the terrain.

Advancing slowly, the Americans used flame throwers, explosives and hand grenades to take the pillboxes out as they exposed themselves, running in zig-zag. Finally, by the end of the day of November 23, the courageous marines had mopped up the last pockets of resistance. From the 5,000 enemy troops defending the island about 100 surrendered, most of them Korean workers. The Japanese had fiercely fought till the last man.

Below, an air view of island of Betio, with the airfield in the middle. The picture was taken during the third landing wave of the battle.

Below, men from the 8th Marine Regiment pinned down on Red Beach 3 on the first day of battle.

Battle of Tarawa footage (video)

Below, marines from the 3rd Batallion, 2nd Regiment, crowded on Read Beach 2, getting ready the move across the small island.