My rifleman r in a watch tower losing a fight to a unit thats not in cover company of heros 210/28/2023 Ten days after the assault, Time magazine published the first of many post-battle analyses: The Marine assault on Betio was particularly bloody. The Tarawa operation became a tactical watershed: the first, large-scale test of American amphibious doctrine against a strongly fortified beachhead. General Smith could sense that Shoup's gifted mind was already formulating a plan. "Not available" replied the admiral, "expect only the usual wooden landing craft" Shoup frowned. Shoup asked Spruance if any of the Navy's experimental, shallow-draft, plastic boats could be provided. Shoup, studied the primitive chart of Betio and saw that the tiny island was surrounded by a barrier reef. General Smith's operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel David M. Spruance said Betio would be the prime target for the 2d Marine Division. Subsequent intelligence reports warned that the Japanese had fortified Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll, where elite forces guarded a new bomber strip. Carlson had attacked Makin Atoll a year earlier. The 2d Raider Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Spruance told the Marines to prepare for an amphibious assault against Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands in November. Spruance, commanding the Central Pacific Force, flew to New Zealand from Pearl Harbor. Smith and his principal staff officers of the 2d Marine Division, Vice Admiral Raymond A. In August 1943, to meet in secret with Major General Julian C. The Marine Assault of Tarawa by Colonel Joseph H. Smith Collection)Īrtist Kerr Eby, who landed at Tarawa as a participant, entitled thissketch "Bullets and Barbed Wire." "Quiet Lagoon" is a classic end-of-battle photograph of the considerable wreckage along Red Beach Two. Across the Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa Across the Reef:
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