USS Tarawa (LHA 1) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 11 text:

l know that you are well trained and fit for the tasks assigned to you. You will quickly over-run the Japanese forces, you will decisively defeat and destroy the treacherous enemies of our country, your success will add new laurels to the glorious tradition of our Corps. Good luck, and God bless you all. As the sun went down on the eve of the assault, the men stretched out on the decks earlier than usual to get as much rest as they could. Reveille was scheduled for 3:45 in the morning. Few of the men slept. 3:45 a.m.: Saturday, November 90, 1943 - D-Day: The transports, several miles off Tarawa and its coral reefs, lay-to in darkness. The warshipsmoved in closer. The moon was at quarter, the sky emptying itself of stars. Over the transports sounded the thin piping of bosun's whistles and the whines of winches as the landing boats were lowered over the side for their load of men. 4:41 a.m.: Tension was beginning to build up on our side and among the Japanese. It broke with them first. From the long black fringe of the islet came a burst, a red star cluster. Our warships loomed through the darkness, moving in closer, their guns trained, waiting. . 5:07 a.m.: Daylight was coming. Suddenly the Japs opened up with their big coastal batteries. The firing was close. Casualties were claimed among the boat crews. 5:19 a.m.: The flagship pointed her bow beachward and, supported by two of her sister ships, let go a salvo from her 16-inch guns. The Jap's 8-inchers were silenced, wiped out. They had been in action twenty mintues. The flagship had been in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many of her crew had been survivors of that day. 6:13 a.m.: The aerial bombardment began. It was not haphazard destruction for their bombs found home. The first phase was swift and brief. It lasted nine minutes. 6:58 a.m.: The Navy was having its day. The task force ceased scheduled firing and began to silence individual batteries at their own discretion. Ships competed with ships as they worked in for the kill. 8:99 a.m.: The first assault waves left the Line of Departure on their journey to the reef - their journey to hell. The Japanese guns were ominously silent. The amphibious tractors moved stoically toward the reef. Fire from the Japanese coastal guns were intermittent at first. The deluge of steel from the bombardment had shocked and dazed the defenders. The amphibious tractors in the first three assault waves therefore managed to lumber over the reef and reach the beach with relatively few casualties. 9:10 a.m.: Second Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment landed. Half hour later the commanding officer messaged: Heavy opposition. 9:19 a.m.: Second Battalion, 9nd Marine Regiment landed. Shortly the commanding officer messaged, Meeting heavy resistance. 9:17 a.m.: Third Battalion, 9nd Marine Regiment landed. The commanding officer messaged, Troops receiving heavy fire in water. Shortly after the action opened, the wounded began to move back to the transports. Men risked their lives to swim to their wounded buddies and drag them back to the boats. Many of these became casualties themselves. The first of the landing craft took off for their return to the transports loaded down with the wounded. They carried, on this tragic journey, boys who thirty minutes earlier had been among the finest physical specimens in the country. A 10:45 a.m.: The commanding officer of the 8th Marine Regiment reported: Stiff resistance. Need half tracks. Tanks no good. 11:05 a.m.: The Third Battalion operations reported Heavy casualties. 19:03 p.m.: The carrier-based planes roared in. 1:00 p.m.: In a gashed tractor were bodies of two Marines and a Navy doctor. The shell that killed them also wounded ten other men. In the blazing sun, Marines and bluejackets removed their steel helmets. We are in the presence of the last great enemy, Death. Almost as an echo, strident through the loudspeaker on the bridge, came the report: The issue is in ou 1:45 p.m.: Colonel Shoup received this message: Reserve teams unable to land. Heavy enemy fire. Is there another beach where we can land ? 4:11 p.m.: All planes in the air were ordered to expend every round of ammunition before leaving the area. 4:45 p.m.: The Sixth Marine Regiment was released. This was all that was left of available manpower. The bolt was shot. 5:90 p.m.: General Smith received first fragmentary casualty reports. They were bad. 10:00 p.m.: Colonel Shoup summed up D-Day in this report to General Smith: Have dug in to hold limited beach-head. All through the night and into the early morning hours of November 91st, boats held back from the Line of Departure tried to run the gaunlet to the beach. There were casualties. The transports by now were being converted into hospital ships. Marines on top of the pier weathered heavy enemy shelling as they struggled to bring ammunition ashore. The inferno lighting up the shore prevented any chance of secrecy. ' 9:00 a.m.: Firing from behind was discovered coming from the wrecked hull of a Japanese tramp steamer on the reefs off Beach Red 9. The Task Force promised: Will bomb at daylight. 8:93 a.m.: Colonel Shoup to General Smith: Urgently request rations and small arms ammunitions landed on the beach. 10:50 a.m.: The Third Battalion of the 9nd Regiment reported it was pinned down. They wanted dive-bombers, they wanted tanks. Both requests were filled. 19:00: First indications Japs were beginning to break reported. Cases were starting to be found of hari-kari. The tide had turned definitely, in favor of the Marines. November 93, 1943. 1:00 p.m.: Casualties were again heavy. Medium tanks had to be dispatched to replace light tanks in neutralizing pillboxes.

Page 10 text:

THE BATTLE Before November 20, 1943, the name of TARAWA was known to only a few. Three days later that name, and the name of Betio beach-head, went around the world like the flash from an exploding shell. Today those names stand' for the first sea-borne assault on a defended atoll. They will continue to endure as monuments of unsurpassed heroism of the Second Division Creinforcedb of the United States Marine Corps. As one of his last acts as Commandant of the Marine Corps, General T. Holcomb brought four men back to prepare an authentic story of the assault. These men produced ai book entitled Betio Beach-head , a clear, accurate, and vivid story of every step of the battle, from the days plans were laid until the last shot was fired and the Stars and Stripes were raised over the torn battlefield. ' ln respectful memory of the valor of all who engaged in that heroic battle, condensations from the book are herein presented to you with compliments of its authors, its publishers CG.P. Putnam Sons? and those of the Commanding Officer of this ship, that you may place these words among your momentos of your cruise aboard the USS TARAWA. . For two dragging weeks the crowded transports had been zig-zagging through the blue waters of the South Pacific, and for the Marines aboard it had been two weeks of weary monotony. They were headed for one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history, but they did not know that then. They did not even know where they were going. At the end of these two weeks, on November 14, 1943, they found out. Tarawa The Marines rolled the strange name off their tongues and repeated it to each other. In their wildest speculations, none had ever said the name Tarawa. Six days later the first assault was landed. Nine days later the bloody battle was history. ' If you want to place the small solitude of Tarawa, start from San Francisco, go roughly two thousand nautical miles toward the southwest and you'll be at Pearl Harbor, . . . travel three thousand more nautical miles along the general route and you reach, where they straddle the equator, the Gilbert Islands. One of them, a few degrees north of the line, is the atoll of Tarawa. Betio lies at Tarawa's southwestern end. lt is somewhat smaller than New York City's Central Park. With a length of two and a half miles, it is only eight hundred yards across at its widest, and it narrows down to a fraction. Over a period of fifteen months the Japanese did a very sound job of perfecting their defenses for the Gilberts, and the heart of their efforts was little Betio. The pillboxes for the automatic weapons, and even the riflemen's pits, were scientifically constructed to withstand heavy bombardment. Guarded by these defenses was a landing field that gave the Japanese a position nearest to our travel routes from San Francisco to Hawaii and Australia. lt was our first major obstruction on the road to Tokyo. In addition to Japanese made defenses, there was the reef, there were the tides. Three months before D-Day, a guard detail was posted before the door of a room on the third floor of the musty old Windsor Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, where the Second Division made its headquarters. This was K Room. To this room came admirals and generals, colonels and naval captains. Fresh data stamped Secret and Ultra Secret piled up on the desks in K Room. The task confronting these men was peculiarly difficult. For the first time in military history, a strongly defended coral atoll was to be stormed and taken from the enemy. It was a case of precedents having to be created, not followed. Previously, American troops landed las military gospel dictates? on the least strongly held areas on the large land masses. This could not be done at Tarawa. The maps of K Room showed every installation the Japanese had built. This was the first problem to be solved. Next was the problem of the reefs. This was a tough one. The information as to the depth of water over the reefs was indefinite. General Smith and his staff did know that part of the reef was exposed at low tide. Their reports told them that during the period of neap tide, a maximum of three feet or less of water, even at high tide, might be experienced. So they could not be sure that even at high tide they could get landing boats to the beach. Even with the best breaks there would not be much time. The span of high tide is only four hours. There were other things which they knew. that added to the natural barrier of the reef were underwater obstacles which the enemy had built, which were certain to stymie the ordinary landing boat. They considered the amphibious tractor as a possible answer. Before committing himself to such a plan, General Smith decided to test them. Every conceivable underwater obstacle was erected, and live ammunition was fired at the amphibs as they moved through and over obstacles to the beach. The results of this rehearsal satisfied him that amphibian tractors could cross fringing coral reefs and that medium tanks couldbe disembarked from LCT's on the edge of such a reef. lt was Sunday morning and the sunlight felt warm and good. Church services were held. Landing craft moved between transports with the clumsy grace of a big fish. When morning came on, the 1st day of November, 1943, they were moving to sea. On November 14, 1943, Task Force Commander Rear Admiral Harry Hill sent this message to his ships: Give all hands the general picture of the projected operation and further details to all who should have this in execution of duties. This is the first assault on a defended atoll and with northern attack and covering forces the largest Pacific operation to date. On the morning of D-Day, troop officers read this message, an . it li 3 in is I , if W' .. I , J. M .aw M fe My J L . 41 .4 from General Smith, to their men: A great offensive to destroy the enemy in-the Pacific has begun. American air, sea and land forces, of which this division is a part, initiate this offensive by seizing Japanese atolls in the Gilbert Islands which will be used as bases for future operations. The task assigned to us is to capture the atolls of Tarawa and Apemama. Army units of our Fifth Amphibious Corps are simultaneously attacking Makin, one hundred and. fifty miles to the north of Tarawa. Early this morning combatant ships of our Navy bombarded Tarawa. Our navy screens our operations and will support our attack tomorrow morning with the greatest concentration of aerial bombardment and naval gunfire in the history of warfare. lt will remain with us until our objective is secured and our defenses are established. Garrison forces are already enroute to relieve us as soon as we have completed our job of clearing our objectives of Japanese forces.

Page 12 text:

3:30 p.m.: B Medical land on Bairiki, establish field hospital as soon as possible. A and C Medical land Beach Red 2 soon as possible. Bring morphine, plasma, dressings, stretchers. Before gigging in for the night the companies re-formed and moved into defensive positions. The sky deepened from rich purple to blackness. The first stars began to shine. Silence settled, disturbed only by faint scuffing of shovels as the men went on digging their foxholes, Then - Banzai! Blood for the Emperor! Two words went through the line: - Stand Fast. The first lap counter-attacks lasted one hour. The laps leaped from their holes and charged, running like possessed demons, wav- ing sabers, tossing hand grenades, firing light machine guns from the hip, charging with fixed bayonets. With knives, bayonets, rifle butts, the Marines fought them back. They were repulsed but not before opening a gap between A and B companies of the Sixth. Our wounded could not be moved. Men opened their first aid kits, bandaged their buddies in the darkness, and gave them water from their canteens. Non-commissioned officers moved among the men, shaking them, warning them to stay awake. 11:00 p.m.: The laps attempted to create a diversion. A few min- utes later they charged as before, screaming Banzai! The Marines stopped the charge and threw the laps back. 4:00 a.m.: The laps launched their final and most desperate attack. It was now or never. A few laps were naked and armed only with knives. For an hour, hand-to-hand fighting went on. Men gave their lives to save their buddies. 5:00 a.m.: The counter-attack ended. The stars fading. It's all over. .Qi'lM,,.?Q.il1in.pg: X 'il W .Hr ., W. L gi ifjxfi, it, X .l lil X. V' Q l. s.. .gm , M eww' We stopped them. Send stretcher bearers to evacuate the wounded. Navy corpsmen bandaged, applied tourniquets, injected mor- phine, lit cigarettes and stuck them between cracked lips and said, You'll be all right, kid. u Soon after the Sixth had finished its job, the First Battalion of the Eighth succeeded in cleaning out the last remnant of resistance on Beach Red 1. 1:12 p.m.: General Smith had the announcement carried by field telephone to all units on the islet and by radio to the ships of the task force that the battle of Betio was over. November 24, 1943. The assault troops began leaving Betio. It was slow business. They were leaving many comrades behind, in shallow graves, still lying face down in the waters of the lagoon, lying along the battered beaches, hanging on brutal wire. They did not talk much, these men who had done the impossible. There were no longer boys among them, only men. Bloody, bandaged heroes. Private First Class lames Williams of Birmingham, Alabama, stepped forward and liftes his bugle to sound colors for the first time over Tarawa. Men turned from digging foxholes, unloading boats, burying the dead. They stood at attention their dirty tired young hands at salute. Some of the wounded managed to stand up too. The piore seriously hurt could only turn their heads as they lay on their itters. They lost their weariness, a little of their sorrow. They could see their flag. It made them proud. hfor they knew, more than anyone else, what it meant to put it t ere. f s I 8 Q .,,5sxxyxxx 172.9 0 ' s v f -All 72 x ,f as j 'U ' l l mf e 2' ll' Q' A v 24 wks!!