By Ivan Toth
The next day, November 21, Colonel Shoup ordered further advances and coordinated the landing of supplies and reinforcements. He also instructed the chaplain to organize the burial of both Marines and Japanese, as the tropical heat caused corpses to decay faster than usual. With the battle being fought in such a confined area, the air was filled with unbearable stench and the threat of infection loomed. After the Marines had landed and held a thin line on the island, the focus of the second day of the invasion was on the forces on beaches Red 2 and Red 3, which were supposed to move inland and split the Japanese defenders into two groups, widening the breach near the airfield until they reached the southern shore. The forces on Red 1 beach were tasked with securing Green beach for the landing of reinforcements. With relatively light losses and the help of naval gunfire, they succeeded in capturing it. Green beach made up the entire western end of the island, and by the end of the day the whole western end, along with most of the line between Red 2 and 3 near the airfield approaches and the airfield itself, was under American control.
November 22, 1943
The third day of the battle consisted mostly of consolidating existing lines along Red 1 and Red 2 beaches, pushing eastward toward the lagoon shores where the piers were located, and bringing in additional heavy weapons and tanks through Green beach. The remaining Japanese held out in the eastern part of the island, with smaller groups resisting near the airfield. Communication between Japanese bunkers had been cut off, and each was now fighting independently. The Americans brought in artillery and several Sherman tanks, clearing bunkers one by one.
On the night of November 22, Japanese forces prepared for a counterattack, which began around 19:30. Small units were sent to infiltrate the American lines as a prelude to a larger assault. However, the scattered and concentrated American artillery fire disrupted the coordination, and the attack never materialized. A second, large-scale banzai charge was launched at 03:00, achieving partial success for the Japanese: they inflicted losses of 45 killed and around 130 wounded Marines. With the support of destroyers Schroeder and Sigsbee, the Marines killed 325 Japanese soldiers.
November 23, 1943
At 05:10, one of the 17 escort carriers supporting the operation, USS Liscome Bay, was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine, killing 687 men. Liscome Bay had provided valuable air support for the Marines, but at the time of her sinking, the loss did not significantly impact the battle on the island. The sinking of Liscome Bay accounted for more than 30% of the total American losses during the Battle of Tarawa. Among the dead was Doris Miller, the Pearl Harbor hero.
At 07:00 on November 23, American naval ships and aircraft began the final bombardment of Japanese positions. Marines, supported by tanks, advanced to clear the remaining bunkers. The Japanese refused to surrender, and in grueling close combat—using grenades, flamethrowers, and even bare hands—the Marines captured bunker after bunker. The mopping-up operations continued for the next five days, until the island was fully secured.
Outcome of the battle
In the following days, the 2nd Division, 6th Marine Brigade, cleared the other islands of the Tarawa Atoll of Japanese forces, finishing by November 28. Soon after, the 2nd Marine Division began preparing for withdrawal, fully pulling out in early 1944. Of the 3,636 Japanese defenders, only one officer and 16 soldiers surrendered. Of the 1,200 Korean forced laborers brought to Tarawa, only 129 survived.
In total, 4,690 of the island’s defenders were killed. The 2nd Marine Division suffered 894 killed (48 officers and 846 enlisted men), while 84 were mortally wounded and later died, and 2,188 were wounded (102 officers and 2,086 enlisted men). Out of 12,000 men of the 2nd Marine Division who participated in the battle, 3,166 became casualties—either killed, wounded, or later succumbing to wounds. All of these losses occurred within 76 hours, between the landing at 09:10 on November 20 and the declaration that Betio was secured at 13:30 on November 23, 1943.
The heavy casualties at Tarawa caused public anger and dissatisfaction in the United States, with newspapers across the country publishing grim statistics. Many questioned why such a high price had to be paid for such a small and seemingly insignificant island. The outrage was further fueled by remarks from Marine Corps commanders such as General Holland M. Smith, who compared the losses at Tarawa to Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. In contrast, the newly appointed Marine Corps Commandant, General Alexander Vandegrift, a highly decorated Guadalcanal veteran, defended the operation, saying that “Tarawa was a battle that had both a beginning and an end.”
Consequences
After Tarawa, Admiral Nimitz launched the Marshall Islands campaign. The airfields at Betio and Apamama proved extremely valuable, but the greatest benefit of the battle was the lessons learned and applied at the Marshalls. The heavy American losses strongly resonated with U.S. leadership, and the battle was studied in detail. After Tarawa, the Americans improved communication and coordination during landings, extended and refined pre-invasion bombardments, and took intelligence more seriously. They also adopted the exclusive use of tracked amphibious vehicles (LVTs, known as “Amtracs”) to avoid situations like Tarawa, where other landing craft became stranded on reefs.
Conclusion
The losses at Tarawa were the result of several interconnected factors, including miscalculations of tide and reef height, insufficient numbers of amphibious vehicles, the inability to neutralize well-entrenched defenders with bombardment, and difficulties in coordination among the various branches of the armed forces involved.
This was also the first time that the U.S. carried out an amphibious assault against a well-fortified and determined enemy willing to defend positions at any cost. Previous landings, such as Guadalcanal, had met little to no resistance because they were unexpected. At the time, Tarawa was the most heavily fortified coral atoll assaulted and captured by the Allies in the Pacific.
In total, nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died during the 76-hour battle. Afterward, Staff Sergeant Norman T. Hatch and other cameramen with the Marines filmed footage later used in the documentary With the Marines at Tarawa. The film showed images of dead American soldiers and was so disturbing that President F.D. Roosevelt personally decided whether it should be released to the public.
After the battle, the 2nd Marine Division was sent to Hawaii, leaving behind the 2nd Battalion, 6th Company to clear the area, support the Seabees in repairing the airfield, and help bury the dead. The division remained in Hawaii for six months, recuperating and resupplying for the next major amphibious assault: the Battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands in June 1944.
Ivan Toth is a distinguished Croatian lawyer and analyst of social affairs.
