11/20/1943 - 2,400 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, advancing towards Japan, continuing the island hopping campaign that has seen the United States Navy and Marine Corps advance from the island of Guadalcanal through the South Pacific to the island of Bougainville, as part of Operation Galvanic, the Fifth Amphibious Corps of Major General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith (the nickname comes from his hard-driving command style and use of colorful language when angered), featuring the 2nd Marine Division of Major General Julian C. Smith (about 18,000 men), invades a tiny, bird-shaped island within the Gilbert Islands' Tarawa Atoll only two miles long, and only 800 yards across at its widest point called Betio (just big enough for a Japanese airfield) that its defending commander, Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki (in command of almost 5,000 men) has transformed into a fortress that he claims "... would take a million men one hundred years" to conquer. For all concerned, the battle that follows will be a bloodbath.
Tarawa With Betio At Center
Made aware of the inadequacies of the region's inadequate defenses following Colonel Evans Carlson's raid of August 1942 on Mankin Island (100 miles to the north of Tarawa), Shibasaki (he replaces Rear Admiral Tomonari Saichiro in July of 1943) upgrades the Betio's defenses (his men are still working on various defensive positions when the U.S. invasion fleet shows up off the island) for almost a year, creating a fortress (Rear Admiral Harry Hill, in command of one of the task forces attacking Tarawa will call Betio "a little Gibraltar") of fourteen coastal guns (with four being Vickers 8-inch guns purchased from the British before the war) that cover approaches from the ocean or the island's lagoon, concrete bunkers (one, two stories tall), 500 pillboxes of logs and sand reinforced with cement, 62 heavy machine guns, 44 light machine guns, 9 anti-tank guns, 40 artillery pieces (many pre-registered on landing locations), trenches connecting all defensive positions, steel tetrahedrons to channel landing craft and men into firing lanes, dense acres of barbed wire, minefields, tank traps, and 14 dug-in Type 95 Japanese light tanks, all surrounding an airstrip down the center of Betio, with supplies brought on to the island from a long pier stretching beyond the island's surrounding coral reef. The island has an elevation of only 8 to 10 feet above sea level, no cover other than brush and palm trees here and there, a seawall of coconut logs banded and stapled together about twenty feet from the water, and has tides that can drop multiple feet in only a matter of hours. The island is an abattoir just waiting for butchery victims.
Shibasaki
Gun Position
Taking the challenge of besting the Japanese commander's "conquest' boast are the men of the Marine Corps 2nd Division ... the Second and Eighth Marine Regiments and attached troops ticketed for the invasion, with the Sixth Marine Regiment in reserve. Commanding the Marine portion of the operation is 61-year-old Holland McTyeire Smith, an brillant Alabamian born in the town of Hatchechubbee in 1882 who climbs a ladder to leadership of the Fifth Amphibious Corps (he will come to be called "The Father" of modern amphibious warfare) that includes a BS degree from Auburn University, first sergeant of a cavalry company in the Alabama National Guard, a law degree from the University of Alabama, joining the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant in 1905, completing officer training at Annapolis in 1906, duty stations that move from the Philippines to the Dominican Republic and cover the West Coast and East Coast of the United States, in addition to the Gulf of Mexico, WWI service in France (during which he becomes the first Marine, of only six, to graduate from the Army General Staff College), post war duties include serving aboard the battleships USS Wyoming, USS Arkansas, and USS California, command of the 1st Marine Division, and overseeing the formation and training of the newly created 2nd and 3rd Marine divisions. 58-year-old Marylander Julian Constable Smith's road to command of the 2nd Marine Division includes a degree from the University of Delaware, taking part in the 1914 occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico, passing a course of instruction at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, command of a machine gun battalion in Cuba, graduation from the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, captain of the Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Team in 1928 and 1930, becoming the Naval Attache in London, and command of the Fleet Marine Force Training School in North Carolina. Created in San Diego, California in 1941, the men of the 2nd Division of the Marine Corps are a mix of veterans and newbies, some with the combat experience of becoming the first Americans of the war to land on enemy soil (a company splashes ashore at Florida Island eighty minutes before Guadalcanal is invaded), a platoon makes the first American bayonet charge of the war, the division's artillery fires the first offensive land cannons of the war, and participate in the taking and defense of Guadalcanal and Tulagi during the Allies Solomons Campaign, including mop-up actions that keep the division on the infamous island a month longer than its more famous brothers of the 1sr Division.
Ashore At Tulagi
At Efate in the New Hebrides, the division practices its invasion, and Julian Smith makes a command change when the leader of the Second Regiment, Colonel William W. Marshall suffers a nervous breakdown, replacing the ill warrior with his operations officer from Indiana, a man who has helped planned the details of the invasion, 38-year-old Lt. Colonel David Monroe Shoup (Shoup will eventually become the Commandant of the whole Corps). Weighing anchor, the invasion force (the largest to ever be assembled at the time ... 17 carriers, 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 66 destroyers, 2 minesweepers, and 36 transports, and an assortment of landing craft that includes shallow draft Higgins boats and non-armored LVT "Alligators" (enough to bring in three waves of Marine invaders). Tons of bombs dropped on the island in November, with the arrival of the fleet off Tarawa on 11/20/1943 (a Saturday), three hours of ship gunnery also hits the island (the Marines request more pre-invasion bombardment, but it will be denied by the Navy who claim all targets have been hit, with Rear Admiral Hill stating, "It is not our intention to wreck the island. We do not intend to destroy it. Gentlemen, we will obliterate it." Wrong, although the USS Maryland, one of the battleships to survive Pearl Harbor makes one of the great single shots of the war, placing a half-ton, 16-inch armor-piercing shell into the ammunition room of an 8-inch gun on Betio's western tip that blows up the ammo, the gun, and its blockhouse while killing hundreds of Japanese troops), along with attacks from carrier planes. Loaded with steak and eggs, fried potatoes, and hot coffee, the Marines climb down nets to their boats and head to their staging positions at 3:30 in the morning The plan is for the Marines to attack over three beaches designated Red 1 (on the far west of Betio), Red 2 (in the center, just west of the supply pier), and Red 3 (just to the east of the pier) on the northern, lagoon side of the island (and there is a contingency landing site on the western part of the island designated Green Beach). At 9:00, thirty minutes behind plan, the Marines head for shore and immediately run into trouble when it is discovered the Higgins boats won't have enough water beneath them to cross the reef (500 yards off shore) and a horribly accurate fire begins hitting the invaders.
Invasion Beaches
Shoreward - Island Totally Obscured By Smoke
On The Beach - Day 1 At Betio
Five minutes ahead of the main invasion force, to suppress flanking fire that could hit all three of the landing sites, a Scout-Sniper Platoon, under the command of 29-year-old 1st Lt. William Deane "Hawk" Hawkins of Kansas, attacks the Betio pier from three landing craft. Using grenades, flamethrowers, rifles, and bayonets, Hawkins' men clear the pier and move on to the island, while oblivious to the bullets flying by him, Hawkins stands upright, in an LVT, directing the action (wounded, he refuses evacuation, stating to the corpsman who comes over to try to treat him, "I came here to kill Japs, not to be evacuated."). Ashore, Hawkins continues to attack enemy positions with his men and on the second day of the invasion, he will be killed after taking out a bunker protected by five machine guns (with grenades and by firing into the structure's loopholes) and three pillboxes (despite being wounded a second time and again refusing evacuation), before being mortally wounded in the chest by an exploding Japanese mortar round (for his two days of fighting on Betio, Hawkins will be awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor and the airstrip the Marines are fighting for will be christened Hawkins Field).
The Pier
Hawkins
Hell on Earth (only about a third of the first wave of invaders will make it to the beaches), the lagoon turns into a small crimson sea as LVTs are blown apart and holed, and men are shot wading ashore (and many also drown when they are prematurely unloaded before reaching the reef where they can be shuttled ashore in LVTs (among the drivers of the landing craft is Coast Guard member, Coxswain Edward Albert Heimberger, soon to be the actor Eddie Albert of "Oklahoma" and "Green Acres" fame ... at Tarawa, for rescuing 47 Marines stranded offshore, and supervising the rescue of 30 other men, Albert will be awarded a Bronze Star with a Combat "V" for his actions)... by the end of the first day, half of the "Alligators" will be destroyed), with even more killing taking place as the first waves of the attack are stopped at the seawall (from within the LVT that brought him ashore, Corporal John Joseph Spillane, a hard throwing baseball prospect of the Yankees and Cardinals engages in game of catch and toss with nearby enemy soldiers, fielding five grenades and throwing them back at nearby Japanese ... a game that concludes with the sixth grenade goes off in his hand ... the Marine will survive, but missing his right hand, he will never play professional baseball). Stuart and Sherman tanks designated to support the invasion sink and are blown up (by the end of the first day only two, one named Colorado and one named China Gal, will remain functional), but a few make it ashore and are able to help the Marines push forward a few hundred yards from the beach. And trying to gain control of the chaos, despite a leg wound which becomes infected, Colonel Shoup sets up a command post near the pier from which he begins coordinating a defense of the thin beachhead the Marines establish on the island (under constant fire from artillery, rifle, and machine gun fire, without rest for two days, Shoup will direct the invasion ashore ... winning a Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts).
Albert
Pinned Down
At And Over The Seawall
Walking Ashore
Despite for the most point being pinned down, here and there along the beachhead, individual Marines jump over the seawall and move forward ... and in small groups that sometimes include only a single man, men of the 2nd Division follow. One of the Marines pressing forward is 22-year-old Staff Sgt. William Jennings Bordelon Jr. of San Antonio, Texas. An assault engineer, the staff sergeant throws demolition charges he has prepared into positions blocking the advance of the Marines, destroying three pillboxes before being wounded by machine gun fire. Ignoring his wounds, he covers men coming ashore near the pier, rescues two wounded engineers from the water, and creates a fourth demolition charge which he uses to blow up another pillbox just as he is being killed by Japanese fire from the position ... actions which win the young warrior a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.
Bordelone
Transferring Wounded Back To The Reef
Finding themselves without the LVTs necessary to bring them ashore, men of the fourth, fifth, and sixth waves of the invasion waiting at the reef, clamber out of their boats and wade ashore through sheets of killing Japanese fire. As brave as it gets, it is a walk that is never forgotten by those that made it, or by those that witness it. But the valor of a handful of Marines is not enough to carry the invading force across the island and as night falls (bringing infamy on himself, when Major John Schoettel is told where to land his men on Betio, he responds in the Gettysburg speak of General George Pickett, staing, "We have nothing left to land.), the 2nd Division prepares for a banzai attack that can push them out of their small and vulnerable defensive perimeter and throw them into the water. The attack never comes though because Rear Admiral Shibasaki is killed outside his command bunker by an American shelling that also tears apart the wiring of the Japanese communication system, negating the ability of the Japanese to give or receive assault instructions. The first day a near debacle (messages have been sent to the fleet command that the issue ashore is in doubt), the Marines survive their first night ashore with some silver linings to hang on to ... knocked off line by fire that closes Red Beach 1, Major Michael P. Ryan is forced to land what remains of his company at Green Beach, and discovers the area is lightly defended and can be a site where reinforcements can be brought ashore relatively safely, and going into action immediately. the Marines are able to bring ashore a battery of 75mm Pack Howitzers (each gun weighs 900 pounds).
Shoup's CP
At The Seawall With The Tide In
Dead Marines
Rare Prisoner
Shoup
Area At West End Of Airfield
The Airfield - 11/21/1943
Day three on the island finds the Marines continuing to consolidate their hold on the island while fighting forward against still deadly fire as the Japanese begin to weaken under the rain of ruin that comes their way from the naval guns off shore and the firepower of the 2nd Division as more heavy equipment, tanks, and men come ashore at Green Beach. Typical of the Marines effort and fighting spirit on 11/22 is the valorous performance of 33-year-old First Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman Jr. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Bonnyman joins the Marines in Phoenix, Arizona as a private (despite being exempted from the service because of his role in running a business deemed vital to the war effort, a copper mining operation). After recruit training in San Diego, Bonnyman serves with distinction leading a Marine pioneer unit on Guadalcanal (a combat engineer unit), receiving a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant. At Betio, Bonnyman is Executive Officer of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Shore Party, and as such, on his own initiative, he leads a group of Marines down the deadly pier to the beach, where he a five engineers arm themselves with flame-throwers and demolition charges and begin destroying Japanese positions shooting up the invading men of the 2nd Division. Day two on the island finds Bonnyman crawling 40 yards forward from the Marine line to the two-story bunker (the dead Shibasaki's command post) blocking further advancement across the island. After scouting the obstruction, the lieutenant crawls back to his men and then fights them forward to the base of the structure. Out of ammunition before an assault can be launched, the men return to their line and make plans to destroy the bunker the following day. Attacking on 11/22 with a command of 21 men (because of the danger in their mission, the group is dubbed "The Forlorn Hope,"13 of them will survive being on Betio), Bonnyman exposes himself to repeated firing by the Japanese as charges are placed on both entrance/exits of the structure, which blown, sends roughly 100 Japanese (150 are dead inside the bunker) out into the open trying to escape (they are instead cut down by Bonnyman and his men firing from atop the bunker in action that will be captured on film by 22-year-old Marine Staff Sgt. Norman T. Hatch in the Academy Award winning short documentary of 1944, "With The Marines At Tarawa"). No rest for the weary, Bonnyman and his men are immediately counterattacked by the Japanese ... and Bonnyman is in the thick of the action, and standing at the group's forward position, kills three charging enemy riflemen before being mortally wounded. For his actions on Betio, Bonnyman is awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor (the award will be accepted from Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, by Bonnyman's 12-year-old daughter, Frances, in 1947 ... body lost in the confusion of combat, through DNA testing, the warrior's remains are located on Betio in May of 2015, and the lieutenant's remains are returned to his childhood home of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is buried with full military honors and an overflight of Marine Cobra helicopters flying in a "missing man" formation on September 27, 2015).
Marine Firing On A Concealed Sniper
Bonnyman
Atop The Bunker - Bonnyman Is Figure Below Smoke At Right
Bonnyman Award Ceremony
Banzai Dead
Grenade
The Colorado At Red Beach 3
Suicides
Five Japanese Prisoners
The cost for the island has come at a high price though (while the Marines are battling the Japanese on Betio on the last official day of combat, offshore, the Japanese submarine, I-175 torpedoes the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay, sending the ship to the bottom of the Pacific and costing the lives of 687 Americans), with the 2nd Marine Division losing 922 enlisted men and 56 officers to violent death (with another 2,188 men wounded ... shocked by the losses, the battle will be heavily censored to the American public, but wanting the public prepared for the even costlier battles coming at the fleet approaches Japan, President Roosevelt authorizes the release of stories, photos, and film of the battle). The Japanese losses in the bloodbath basically consist of Betio's entire command ... of the garrison of 3,636 Japanese, only one officer and sixteen enlisted men will be taken prisoner, and of the 1,200 Korean laborers on the island at the time of its invasion, only 129 will survive. Despite the losses, the highest ranks of the American military rate he seizure of the island a worthwhile success ... the next link on the island hopping campaign across the Pacific, Betio, has been taken and now fleet operations can move on to Marshall Islands (and from there to the Marianas and beyond ... Admiral Chester Nimitz will have his Marines invading the Marshall Atoll of Kwajalein ten weeks after Tarawa), lessons learned which will be included into invasion doctrine including improvement of communications between units on shore and the fleet offshore, making more amtracks available and improving their armor, improving pre-invasion knowledge of beach and lagoon obstacles by the U.S. Navy creating UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) which will one day morph into the United States SEALS, and naval pre-invasion bombardment being lengthened and improved.
After American "Improvements"
Tarawa Base
Kwajalein Invasion
Battle over, on November 24 the two Smith generals walk the island and are horrified at the defenses their Marines had to engage. "How did they do it?" Holland Smith asks Julian Smith as the men examine a blasted pillbox containing American and Japanese dead, killed in hand-to-hand fighting. Spying over a hundred dead Marines floating in the lagoon and covering the invasion beaches tears well in Holland's eyes as he answers his own question with a question. "Julian, how can such men be defeated?' Indeed ... and they won't be all the way to Tokyo Bay! Decades later, here is to all the men that advanced the American cause in the Pacific and took a tiny speck of sand, coral, and palm away from the Japanese during the 76 hours of Tarawa, which began on November 20, 1943 ... thank you!
Part Of The Island From Spotter Plane
Sake Time!
Destroyed Alligator
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Thank you so much for your time and effort in writing this blog. I’ve learned more from your writing than I was ever taught in school, and I truly appreciate your deep digs.
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