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The island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll was defended by the elite troops of the Special Naval Landing Force, whose commander, Admiral Shibaski, boasted that 'the Americans could not take Tarawa with a million men in a hundred years'. In a pioneering amphibious invasion, the Marines of the 2nd Division set out to prove him wrong, overcoming serious planning errors to fight a 76-hour battle of unprecedented savagery. The cost would be more than 3,000 Marine casualties at the hands of a garrison of some 3,200. The lessons learned would dispel forever any illusions the Americans had about the fighting quality of the Japanese.
Campaign 77: Tarawa 1943 describes the strategic location of Tarawa:
Lying some 2,500 miles (4,020km) southwest of Hawaii and 1,300 miles (2,100km) southeast of Truk, Tarawa had a unique location. To the north and west lay the Marshall and Caroline Islands, while south and east were the Allied-held bases. As the most southerly point in Japan's outer defense ring it held a pivotal position on the lifeline from Hawaii and the United States to the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. It was vital that this lifeline be maintained and most Allied operations in 1942 and early 1943 were conducted to that end. The invasion of Guadalcanal in 1942 and the operations in Papua New Guinea steadily rolled back the Japanese forward positions that threatened Australia.
Initially the Marshall Islands were to have been the first objective in the central Pacific drive. Ceded to Japan after the First World War, little was known of their defenses, but they were believed to have been strong and the garrison large. The relatively close proximity of Truk posed a threat of land and naval intervention and Spruance and his planning team were reluctant to take the risk in what was to be the Marines' pioneering amphibious assault against the enemy. America was frantically rebuilding its navy after the Pearl Harbor attack, but it was still not strong and the landing force would rely heavily on obsolete ships for support. The decision was made to assault an island that could be readily taken with whatever resources were available at the time; a flawed decision as events were subsequently to prove.
The Gilberts had until recently been British territory and the Americans had access to a wide range of up-to-date information about the islands from British and Commonwealth expatriates. At a conference in Hawaii in September 1943, Operation Galvanic: the invasion of Tarawa, Makin and the small island of Apamama, was formulated and the first 'island hopping' operations were approved.
At this stage of the war nobody knew if such a complex and perilous undertaking would succeed at all or at what cost. It was the task of the Marine Corps 2nd Division to find out.
Further Reading
Campaign 77: Tarawa 1943
Provides a detailed account of the US Marines’ invasion of Tarawa, a 76-hour battle of unprecedented savagery.
Essential Histories Specials 3: The Second World War—A World in Flames
Tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War and assesses the political, military and historical significance of the war.
Battle Orders 7: US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1943–44
Examines the development of the structure of the Marine Corps in the period 1943–44, its training, tactics, weaponry, and command infrastructure as well as the battles fought in the Southwest Pacific on New Britain, and in the Central Pacific on Tarawa, Roi-Namur, Eniwetok, Saipan, and Tinian.
Lying some 2,500 miles (4,020km) southwest of Hawaii and 1,300 miles (2,100km) southeast of Truk, Tarawa had a unique location. To the north and west lay the Marshall and Caroline Islands, while south and east were the Allied-held bases. As the most southerly point in Japan's outer defense ring it held a pivotal position on the lifeline from Hawaii and the United States to the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. It was vital that this lifeline be maintained and most Allied operations in 1942 and early 1943 were conducted to that end. The invasion of Guadalcanal in 1942 and the operations in Papua New Guinea steadily rolled back the Japanese forward positions that threatened Australia.
Initially the Marshall Islands were to have been the first objective in the central Pacific drive. Ceded to Japan after the First World War, little was known of their defenses, but they were believed to have been strong and the garrison large. The relatively close proximity of Truk posed a threat of land and naval intervention and Spruance and his planning team were reluctant to take the risk in what was to be the Marines' pioneering amphibious assault against the enemy. America was frantically rebuilding its navy after the Pearl Harbor attack, but it was still not strong and the landing force would rely heavily on obsolete ships for support. The decision was made to assault an island that could be readily taken with whatever resources were available at the time; a flawed decision as events were subsequently to prove.
The Gilberts had until recently been British territory and the Americans had access to a wide range of up-to-date information about the islands from British and Commonwealth expatriates. At a conference in Hawaii in September 1943, Operation Galvanic: the invasion of Tarawa, Makin and the small island of Apamama, was formulated and the first 'island hopping' operations were approved.
At this stage of the war nobody knew if such a complex and perilous undertaking would succeed at all or at what cost. It was the task of the Marine Corps 2nd Division to find out.
Further Reading
Campaign 77: Tarawa 1943
Provides a detailed account of the US Marines’ invasion of Tarawa, a 76-hour battle of unprecedented savagery.
Essential Histories Specials 3: The Second World War—A World in Flames
Tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War and assesses the political, military and historical significance of the war.
Battle Orders 7: US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1943–44
Examines the development of the structure of the Marine Corps in the period 1943–44, its training, tactics, weaponry, and command infrastructure as well as the battles fought in the Southwest Pacific on New Britain, and in the Central Pacific on Tarawa, Roi-Namur, Eniwetok, Saipan, and Tinian.
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