Tarawa, the battle as I saw it.

THE BATTLE FOR TARAWA AS I SAW IT

While recuperating in Mew Zealand, we began preparation got a new offensive. Division Commander General Marston was replaced by General Julian D. Smith and Colonel Merrit Edson became chief of staff. Edson, who had won the Medal of honor on Guadalcanal, did not come for a any desk job.
We, (1st Battalion, 6th Marines), sailed north to Hawkes Bay to practice amphibious landings. Colonel Maurice Holmes became regimental commander and Major William K. Jones was our commander. On October 28, 1943, we loaded on the USS Feland, a new transport. I thought it looked like a motor boat because the rear end was squared off like it was made to support an outboard motor.

Toward dawn on November 1, we left Wellington Bay at a speed of about 14 knots. We only knew that this was no drill. The convoy got bigger and bigger. We began to see cruisers and destroyers. On November 6, we began practice landings at Efati in French New Hebrides.
We were in boats for hours, smelling the fumes of the diesel motors I watched one of the coxswain’s mates braiding on a piece of rope. He painstakingly braided it into a continuous loop. I thought he was probably working on it as one of his projects for his next promotion. He seemed to finish it to his satisfaction; Raised it to look it over one last time. And then he tossed it over the side.
When we finished, we got back aboard the Feland. Some of the guys, who had a little fishing gear with them, broke it out. No rule against this, but there was a rule against diving from the fantail for a swim We had a bullet-headed guy about 5’8 tall and weighing about 250 pounds who dived off anyway. Lots of people yelled, “Man Overboard”. He didn’t come up. About four Marines dove in to try to save him . One got within about three feet of his outstretched hands. I will never forget him looking up at us. It was impossible to go any further. I think he was so heavy, that if we had gotten hold of him, he would have drowned someone. I heard his G.I. insurance was cancelled and his folks did not receive it. We saw a battleship. Later we found it was the Maryland. She had 16” guns.

On November 12, we sailed; the Colorado and the Tennessee joined us along with four cruisers. The scuttlebut (gossip) said we were going to retake Wake Island. On November 16 we got the message. We were going to open the offensive in the Central Pacific. Our target was Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. There was supposed to be about 2500 Japanese Marines defending it We were going to take it by storm, secure the airfield. There were no plans for retreat. On D Day minus one planes from two carriers were to hit Tarawa. My friend Ed Martin was flying one of those planes. Army bombers were to begin daily strikes. The Navy was to put 2700 tons of metal on Tarawa before a single Marine started ashore. It was hard to believe that anything could survive such a battering. We seemed to hear that we could just comfortably ride in to shore and set up our tents while our burial details handled the dead Japanese! If we ever had to fire a gun the Navy hadn’t done its job.
We were designated as Corps Reserve, probably not even getting in on the landing at all. Lt. Col. Amey, whom I had been with on Guadalcanal, commanded Second Battalion, Second Marines.
He told his command they were very fortunate. They were going to be the first American troops to land against a well-defended beach, first over a coral reef, and the first to kick the h--- out of the Japanese in a hurry. They all agreed they were very lucky. We cleaned our equipment, played cards, studied maps, drank the good Navy coffee, wrote letters. The temperature began to rise over 100 degrees as we approached the equator.
We had many alarms. “General Quarters”, General Quarters, All hands to your Battle Stations!” There were submarine scares. We heard that the army bombers had received no antiaircraft fire from their target. We received a message from General Julian Smith saying part,“You are well trained and equipped for the task ahead of you. Your success will add new laurels to glorious tradition of our Corps. Good Luck and God bless you all!”
A battleship Commander had bragged, “ We have so
much armor we can take anything they throw back at us.”
General Smith said, “When the Marines land and meet the enemy at bayonet point, the only armor a Marine will have is his khaki shirt.”

The battle for Tarawa began at0900 on November 20,1943. It ended seventy six hours later at 1330 on the 24th day of November.
The Japanese fired their first shot. At 04:40 they sent up a star cluster. Then they began firing the big eight-inch guns they had taken from Singapore. Marines had begun leaving their transports in Higgins boats. The Battleships Maryland and Colorado moved in as close as they could. The Jap shells began to rattle off them. A naval air strike, which had been scheduled, failed to come off. The first waves learned a terrible truth. There was a very low tide and the Higgins boats could not float over the reefs. Only the amphibious tractors could be assured of making it to land. They learned something else, too. There were plenty of Japs left on Tarawa and they were firing with everything from rifles to 8-inch guns. They began to realize why Admiral Shibasaki had said that a million men could not take Tarawa. The amtracs began receiving fire at 2000 yards. Marines began to die. Many of them never reached shore; many became tangled in the garbed razor wire. Lt. Col Amey was killed as his amtrac stalled and he tried to wade to Red Beach 2. The heroism was almost belief.
Time after time they charged Japanese positions, ignoring the deadly fire and refusing to halt until they were mortally wounded or killed.
Some died in the deep water, sinking under the weight of their equipment. Others died close in, lying half exposed in the sand.
By mid afternoon our Sixth Marines were released from Corps Reserve.
The first battalion landed in rubber boats.





I was a sergeant in charge of the radio section of the Communication Platoon of Headquarters Company,First Battalion, Sixth Matrines. I had good bosses. Lt.Stegemerten, Tech Sergeant Brown and Lt. Col. Willie K. Jones.





I had about twenty five men with TBY radios which weighed about 45 pounds and were decidedly unreliable. I had radio operators with the Colonel, each of the rifle company commanders, with regimental headquarters. The operators had their packs and rifles, too, so they really had a load. Most of us had carbines, Reising guns and a few of the radio operators had Colt 45 automatics. Then another group had a TBX that would be set up when we arrived on shore to connect us with a lot of larger organizations.
We were dropped from the Feland about a mile and a half from shore. We had no motor. There were thirteen of us in each boat.
The boats were very heavy and sluggish as we rowed them through the water. As we got closer it began to drag on the coral. We got out and began pulling and pushing it. We began receiving fire. We could see the spray as a machine gun would circle across ahead and the water would splash up. We could see the bullets hitting the water; there would be time for us to get ourselves under before they came around to us. A problem was just how long would we need to stay under. That was solved for us. We couldn’t stay under very long! Most of us would drop through the coral every once in a while. You can imagine what this was doing to our equipment. There was no telling how deep the water was. We would pull each other and keep going. I looked over to my left and saw the Battleship Maryland (Tennessee?) She was closer to the shore than I was.
We moved in to about a quarter of a mile from shore. Gunfire was tearing up the water ahead of us. The island was smoking and blazing. The noise was deafening, The heat was almost unbearable. Most of us were carrying two canteens. I drank one of mine and then didn’t drink out of the other, wanting to be sure I didn’t run out. People were dropping right and left now. We had to go forward; we couldn’t have gotten back to our ship if we had tried. I don’t think the thought ever crossed anyone’s mind.
There were hundreds of dead Marines that we walked over and around.
We dragged the boat with our equipment on and on. Other boats were loaded with machine guns. Mortars and other gear were right alongside of us. We got it to the beach. It was about 3 feet high so we had to keep our heads down. We began pushing forward. We had only gotten about 200 yards before night began to set in and we were ordered to hold what we had until morning.
During the night Corporal David R. Baker, who later was the best man at my wedding, and I worked on radio equipment which was not working. I kept in touch with my men who were with the line companies. One of my good Buddies, Corporal Glen R. Smith was killed as a Japanese suicide person jumped in the tank trap where Smitty and a few others of our men were spending the night.
We were very thirsty. We finally received some 5-gallon cans of water from the rear, only to find that the cans had been painted on the inside and tasted like turpentine.
A lot of our people used one canteen for water and they put in two hand grenades in their other canteen cup and cover. I had two canteens and I put my grenades on one of my old belts and kept them around my neck.
We took canteens off dead Marines along with sometimes a little food. The “K” rations were a highly concentrated chocolate bar. I could never handle more than a half bar.
The nest morning we advanced along the south shore. All through the day we advanced, murderously slow. About 7:30 the Japs counter-attacked. When we held, they began to kill themselves.
About 4:00 in the morning several hundred of them attacked our “A” and “B” companies in a wild banzai charge.
It was 1st Lt. Norman K. Thomas, one of my friends was acting commander of “B” Company. He told Colonel Jones’ “ We are killing them as fast as they come at us, but we can’t hold much longer. We have to have reinforce-
ments.” There was no time to get reinforcements and a breakthrough would have put the Japs on our flank and we would have been in terrible shape. Jones told them, “ You’ve got to hold.” Somehow they held. Ater, one of them said, “Jones told us to hold, and, by God, we held!”
As we went forward, the ground was covered with dead Japs. They had made a bad choice trying to break through our battalion!
By sunup everything started working. The carrier fighters and bombers came in. I don’ think they killed any Japs, but they sure made them keep their heads down. We had good air support from the Navy from then on.
They came in, strafing, over what was left of the palm trees. Then the navy ships bombarded ahead of us.
We moved back into reserve and had a chance to regroup. One of the greatest helps was we had some Sherman tanks come in. Now, those things were a help. I will never forget that one of them had the name “China Gal” on its side. They had more armor than a khaki shirt. We moved forward again.
At 13:30 on November 23, General Julian Smith pronounced the atoll secured.
We had fought for honor, for self-respect,(and for our lives), and for the memory of Marines who had fought just as we did in the wars before us.
We were involved in mopping up. SeaBee bulldozers began working on the new airstrip. P47’s, including Ed Martin, from the carriers began to land.
Our burial details were doing their work. When we marched back to go aboard ship, we saw a new cemetery with row after row of white crosses. Beautiful but somber.
On a bare tree, a huge holiday flag with its stars and stripes was flying.
We had a ceremony. A bugler blew “To the Colors”. We raised the British flag. We turned around and went back. The bugler played “Taps”. We had to clean up the rest of the Gilbert Islands.
Some of our troops ran into a little opposition, but we didn’t have much. Some of us got to ride in a submarine over to one of the islands to reconnoiter. All we had to do was pick up 16 Japanese prisoners that the natives were proudly holding for us.
On December 4th we went aboard the USS Harris (Harrison?). Our destination: Hawaii!