European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 17, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The strategies of adm. Ernest. King of left and army Gen. Doughs Macarthur were at Odd in the Pacific. Ronald. Spector in Fdge against the Sun. Essentially what the . Strategy was in adm. Chester Nimit s theater was to secure successive islands and fixed aircraft carriers within bombing Range of the next Island to be invaded thus leapfrogging in about 500-mile jumps. Macarthur used similar tactics in new Guinea. These moves were accompanied by Ever increasing numbers of carriers battleships and land based bombers which were taking command of the sea and air from the japanese just As the architect of Pearl Harbor adm. Isoroku Yamamoto had forecast. Tarawa pronounced tar a a was an atoll of 25 islets in the Gilbert islands near the Equator 2,081 Miles Southwest of Pearl Harbor. Its 4,500 defenders members of the first rank japanese Navy were based on the 21/j-by i mile islet of Betio Bay she of and led by adm. Keiji Shibasaki. He boasted his Force could withstand assault by a million men for 100  the japanese had armed Betio with_25-8-Inch coastal guns captured from the British at Singapore. They had buried 14 tanks in the Sand and built 100 bloc houses some with Concrete Walls 8 feet thick. Then there were the tides. Tarawa is one of those rare spots on the planet with dodging tides with unpredictable movements on a roughly 24-hour Cycle one High and one Low a Day. Since the attack was coming across a half mile reef timing the tide was critical. Maj. . Holland a new Sealander who had lived on Tarawa 15 years warned the americans there were Only three feet of water Over the reef at Low tide. You won t be Able to  the Higgins Landing Craft Drew 4 feet. The planners of the invasion operation galvanic predicted there would be five feet on a Day. But the night before 14-year-old Rota Onorio paddled his Canoe out to the huge Fleet of three battleships five escort carriers 26 cruisers and destroyers and 126 transports carrying 18,000 marines of the 2nd div. He told the. Americans the reef would be impassable the next Day. Nevertheless the marines were coming. Landing on hostile shores under fire was As second nature to the Marine corps As leathernecks. Two Hundred marines stormed fort Montague in Nassau Harbor in the Bahamas during the american revolution. During the 1920s and 30s, marines there were Only about 350 officers and 10,000 enlisted men in the whole service were continually Landing in trouble spots in the Caribbean to safeguard american interests. If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing Fields of Eton the japanese bases of the Pacific were captured on the beaches of the Caribbean where the problems involved were worked out in Marine Maneu vers wrote Gen. Holland m. Howlin mad Smith who led the Tarawa marines. Marine corps doctrine became a Landing manual in 1934 that was holy writ during the Pacific War. But Tarawa taught some murderous lessons of its own. Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner who had the nickname terrible Turner was in charge of getting the Landing Force organized and ashore. Then Smith the Only Marine general who could shout louder than any Admiral was to take Over. This clamorous duo was to pair in repeated landings to come. But this time they had Only Century old charts and interviews with former residents to steer by. And the tide was indeed out on Makin Mug rin99 Miles to the North 6,700 men of the army s 2 7th division landed opposed by about 800 mostly labor troops. To the South the . Warships blasted Tarawa for 2vz hours. It seemed like no living soul could be on that Island said Navy capt Charles j. Moore chief of staff to adm. Raymond spruance Overall invasion commander. There Aren t 50 japs alive.". The marines in their new amphibious armoured a tracs found out otherwise As they crunched Over the unexpectedly shallow reef at 4 Mph. Eleven of the machines made the shallows Only to be destroyed by mortar fire. The Rainbow tropical Waters turned red from the blood of marines and dead fish. Col. David m. Shoup a future commandant of the corps made it ashore and set up a Headquarters of a sort against the Wall of a japanese fort. After 90 minutes As the marines Clung to a 20-foot strip of Beach in the Lee of a Coconut log seawall Shoup radioed for All possible  1 it was like being in the Middle of a Pool table without pockets recalled one of men in the first Waves. Thre hours later with casualties at 20 percent and Only 1,500 marines ashore Shoup radioed we need help. Situation  destroyers risked grounding to steam As close As they dared to Shell the defenders. Near Shoup time Magazine correspondent Robert Sherrod saw an enemy Soldier hit by a Flamethrower. The Jap flared up like a piece of celluloid. He a s dead instantly but the bullets in his Cartridge Belt exploded for a full 60 seconds after he had been charred to  by dusk 5,000 marines were holding 1,000 Yards of Beach despite 1,500 dead and wounded. Some artillery had been landed As Well As blood plasma. Bloated bodies violently mutilated by gunfire Lay at water s Edge providing some of the Grimm est photographs of world War ii. But the marines kept coming in As the tide Rose. Tanks were ashore. Marines Cut the Island in two dodging among the pillboxes and stumps of shattered Palm Trees. Shoup to Fleet we re  a Bulldozer Driver fending off bullets with his Blade scooped Sand against the Entrance of Shibasaki s Concrete Bunker. Marines poured gasoline Down the air vents then lit it incinerating 300 japanese. After three Days the surviving japanese at the end of the Island staged a Banzai charge. Crying japanese drink marines blood they stormed it. Norman k. Thomas s company b we re killing them As fast As they come at us but we can t hold much longer. We need reinforcements he radioed maj. Bill Jones of the 6th Marine regt. Imp Wii we Haven t got them to Send to you. You be got to hold Jones replied. They did. Three Hundred japanese Lay dead before them. Offshore japanese submarine 1-75 torpedoed the . Escort Carrier Lipscombe Bay which exploded spectacularly before sinking with the loss of 600 sailors. On Makin where operations were also hampered by the Low tide the army took the Island after three Days. The troops were jittery and stayed jittery said Turner attributing this to poor office ring further evidence of Mutual mistrust even disdain Between the services. By the afternoon of the third Day 75 hours and 4 minutes after it began the Battle of Tarawa was Over. Only one japanese officer and 16 enlisted men survived 1,027 marines had been killed. Many of their bodies washed to sea or were buried under the Sands of Battle. For years parts of skeletons of the fallen would surface. Some probably Lay buried under the runway speedily built by the Seabee in preparation for the next stepping Stone Kwajalein and eniwetok in the Marshall islands. Smith toured Betio after the Battle. I passed boys who looked older than their fathers. It was the most completely defended Island lever  Tarawa had been instructive. Next time instead of firing in Flat trajectory at the Walls of pillboxes the Navy would lob shells to hit their More vulnerable roofs from above. Better radios to withstand the Shock of Battle and Saltwater would be developed. More Landing Craft were needed and the Pace of the Landing assault quickened. When Kwajalein was pasted from air and sea on feb. 1, 1944, preparatory to invasion one onlooker said the entire Island looked As if it had been picked up to 20,000 feet and then  and so it was to be again and again Westward relentlessly across the misnamed Pacific Ocean Island speck by Island speck body by body As Tarawa faded in the Wake of the advancing americans. Marines carry a wounded buddy away from the bloody Battle which ended in . Victory. A in Day. No mar 17,1993 Thi stars and stapes 25