Word: beachheads
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...during that first day on Tarawa "dozens of Marines were being killed or wounded every five minutes. Anyone who ventured beyond the precarious beachhead we held behind the retaining wall was more likely to become a casualty than not. Jap snipers were hidden so carefully in the tops of coconut trees or under earth-mounded coconut logs that they could rarely be seen. Machine guns from slits in those fortifications covered the beach and the areas behind the beach, chattering incessantly as they raked the Americans...
...Point. That was the way it went the first day. The assault battalions had been cut to ribbons. Anyone who ventured beyond the beachhead and the retaining wall - and by mid-afternoon several hundred Marines had so ventured - was likely to become a casualty. From treetop concealment and from pill box slits Jap snipers and machine-gunners raked the Americans...
...Marine beachhead at this point comprised only the 20 feet between the water line and the retaining wall of coconut logs which ringed Betio. Beyond this strip, Jap snipers and machine-gunners were firing. In a little revetment was the headquarters of Major Henry P. ("Jim") Crowe, a tough, red-mustached veteran who had risen from the Marine ranks to command of one of the assault battalions. Near by passed a parade of wiremen, riflemen, mortarmen and stretcher bearers...
...Turning Point. Next morning before dawn a lone Jap plane came over, shied away as U.S. ships put up a terrific ack-ack barrage. Soon after the first light the 2nd Division's reserves made for shore. From the beachhead it was a sickening sight...
...Dalmatian beachhead was melting away...