Word: tarawa
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Dates: during 1943-1943
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...killed, 2,680 wounded. Most casualties (95%) were marines who fell on Tarawa's Betio island. The Gilberts' 5,700 Jap garrison was virtually wiped...
Lesson In Tactics. The lessons of Tarawa were hard. From admirals down to leatherneck privates there had been great expectations for the massive pre-landing barrage. Warships poured in 2,900 tons of shells, planes dropped 700 tons of bombs. For every square yard of scant square-mile Betio there were 20 lb. of explosive.* Marines, watching the awesome show from their transports, chortled: "There won't be a Jap alive when we get ashore...
Lesson in Landing. Tarawa had shown up other deficiencies: costly had been the failure of Higgins boats and other landing craft to get over Betio's reef (TIME, Dec. 6). The Navy blamed this on a sudden strong wind that lowered the water. For the next atoll, they might be prepared with improved boats or amphibious machines adapted from the "Alligator" tractor that can crawl over a sharp coral shelf...
...believe the Marshalls, Carolines, Marianas, Philippines and Jap islands will be easier because of Tarawa. Our period of blind refusal to learn, so exasperating early in the war, has all but passed. We have learned to learn faster...
...second day of the Marines' landing, while the struggle for Tarawa was still nip-&-tuck, two seasoned British Empire servants had come ashore: Lieut. Colonel Vivian Fox-Strangways, India-born, Africa-trained, Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony; and Major Francis G. I. Holland, Director of Education among the 27,000 Gilbertese. In his kit Major Holland carried a British flag...