Word: tarawa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1943-1943
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pacific. The Navy threw its biggest offensive force of the war into attacks on Makin, Tarawa and Abemama atolls in the Central Pacific...
...Tarawa, Makin and Abemama, tiny pin points of coral and sand, Admiral Spruance's Marines and soldiers fought Japs for whom there was no line of retreat. But ahead of the Americans there was a pregnant line of advance-to the Marshalls, to the Japs' great naval-and-air center at Truk...
...Tarawa, the Japs were formidably dug in on nine large islets which form the backbone of the 22-mile-long atoll. Twenty-four hours after the initial landing, battle-hardened Marine veterans of the Pacific Fleet and green but tough Army units, under the remote command of Lieut. General Robert C. Richardson Jr., were still fighting desperate Japs...
Abemama, a number of small islands around a lagoon, could be developed into an emergency fighter airdrome. Reports from Honolulu suggested that fighting on the 12-by-5-mile atoll, 80 miles southeast of Tarawa, was light...
With its usual reticence, the Navy released no details. Targets were Tarawa, important Jap air base, and tiny Nauru. Said the Navy: "Operations were carried out according to plan during the night preceding and a good portion of the day." (The Marcus raid lasted only nine hours.) Said Tokyo: 200 planes made the attack, 20 were shot down...