Latest / Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa / 010 - The Third Day D2 at Betio 22 November 1943

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010 - The Third Day D2 at Betio 22 November 1943 · Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six of Across the Reef The Marine Assault of
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  Speaker 1: Tarawa by Joseph H. Alexander. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. The third day Deep plus two at
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  Speaker 1: Bay Show twenty two November nineteen forty three, on Deep
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  Speaker 1: plus two, Chicago Daily News war correspondent Keith Wheeler released
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  Speaker 1: this dispatch from Tarawa. It looks as though the Marines
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  Speaker 1: are winning on this blood soaked bomb, hammered, stinking little
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  Speaker 1: abbatoir of an Island. Colonel Etson issued his attack orders
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  Speaker 1: at zero four hundred, as recorded in the division's D
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  Speaker 1: three journal. Edson's plan for Deep plus two was this
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  Speaker 1: one six attacks at zero eight hundred to the east
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  Speaker 1: along South Beach to establish contact with one two and
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  Speaker 1: two two one eight attached to second Marines. Attacks at
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  Speaker 1: daylight to the west along North Beach to eliminate JAP
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  Speaker 1: pockets of resistance between beaches Red one and two eighth
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  Speaker 1: Marines minus LT one eight continues attack to east. Edson
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  Speaker 1: also arranged for naval gunfire and air support to strike
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  Speaker 1: the eastern end of the island at twenty minute interludes
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  Speaker 1: throughout the morning, beginning at zero seven hundred McLeod's Lt.
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  Speaker 1: Three six still embarked at the line of departure, with
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  Speaker 1: land at Shop's call on Green Beach. The key to
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  Speaker 1: the entire plan was the eastward attack by the fresh
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  Speaker 1: troops of Major Jones's landing team, but Edson was unable
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  Speaker 1: for hours to raise the first Battalion six Marines on
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  Speaker 1: any radio net. The enterprising Major Tompkins, Assistant Division Operations officer,
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  Speaker 1: volunteered to deliver the attack order personally to Major Jones.
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  Speaker 1: Tompkins's hair raising odyssey from Edson' CP to Green Beach
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  Speaker 1: took nearly three hours, during which time he was nearly
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  Speaker 1: shot on several occasions by nervous Japanese and American centuries.
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  Speaker 1: By quirk, the radio NEETs started working again just before
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  Speaker 1: Tompkins reached LT. One six. Jones had the good grace
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  Speaker 1: not to admit to Tompkins that he already had the
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  Speaker 1: attack order. When the exhausted messenger arrived on Red Beach two.
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  Speaker 1: Major Hayes launched his attack promptly at zero seven hundred,
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  Speaker 1: attacking westward on a three company front. Engineers with satchel
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  Speaker 1: charges and Bangalore torpedoes helped neutralize several inland Japanese positions,
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  Speaker 1: but the strong points along the re entrant were still
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  Speaker 1: as dangerous as hornets nests. Marine light tanks made brave
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  Speaker 1: frontal attacks against the fortifications, even firing their thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: millimeters guns point blank into the embussures, but they were
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  Speaker 1: inadequate for the task. One was lost to enemy fire
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  Speaker 1: and the other two were withdrawn. Hayes called for a
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  Speaker 1: section of seventy five millimeter half tracks. One was lost
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  Speaker 1: almost immediately, but the other used its heavier gun to
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  Speaker 1: considerable advantage. The center and left flank companies managed to
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  Speaker 1: curve around behind the main complexes, effectively cutting the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: off from the rest of the island. Along the beach, however,
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  Speaker 1: progress was measured in yards. The bright spot of the
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  Speaker 1: day for one eight came late in the afternoon, when
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  Speaker 1: a small party of Japanese tried a sortie from the
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  Speaker 1: strong points against the marine lines. Hayes's men, finally given
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  Speaker 1: real targets in the open, cut down the attackers in
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  Speaker 1: short order. On Green Beach, Major Jones made final preparations
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  Speaker 1: for the assault of one to six to the east.
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  Speaker 1: Although there were several light tanks available from the platoon
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  Speaker 1: which came ashore the previous evening. Jones preferred the insurance
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  Speaker 1: of medium tanks. Major Willie K. Jones and Mike Ryan
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  Speaker 1: were good friends. Jones prevailed on their friendship to var
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  Speaker 1: O'Ryan's two battle scarred Shermans for the assault. Jones ordered
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  Speaker 1: the tanks to range no further than fifty yards ahead
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  Speaker 1: of his lead company, and he personally maintained radio contact
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  Speaker 1: with the tank commander. Jones also assigned a platoon of
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  Speaker 1: water cooled thirty caliber machine guns to each rifle company,
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  Speaker 1: and attached as combat engineers with their flamethrowers and demolition
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  Speaker 1: squads to the lead company. The nature of the terrain
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  Speaker 1: and the necessity for giving Hayes's battalion wide birth made
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  Speaker 1: Jones constrain his attack to a platoon front in a
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  Speaker 1: zone of action only one hundred yards wide. It was
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  Speaker 1: the most unusual tactics that I ever heard of, recalled Jones.
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  Speaker 1: As I moved to the east on one side of
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  Speaker 1: the airfield, Larry Hayes moved to the west, exactly opposite
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  Speaker 1: I was attacking towards Wood Kyle, who had first Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: Second Marines. Jones's plan was sound and well executed. The
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  Speaker 1: advantage of having in place a fresh each tactical unit
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  Speaker 1: with integrated supporting arms was immediately obvious. Landing Team one
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  Speaker 1: to six made rapid progress along the south coast, killing
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  Speaker 1: about two hundred and fifty Japanese defenders and reaching the
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  Speaker 1: thin lines held by two to two and one two
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  Speaker 1: within three hours. American casualties to this point were light.
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  Speaker 1: At eleven hundred, Shop called Jones to his Seatpeede to
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  Speaker 1: receive the afternoon plan of action. Jones's executive officer, Major
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  Speaker 1: Francis X. Beemer, took the occasion to replace the lead rifle.
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  Speaker 1: Company resistance was stiffening. The company commander had just been
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  Speaker 1: shot by a sniper, and the oppressive heat was beginning
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  Speaker 1: to take a toll. Beamer made superhuman efforts to get
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  Speaker 1: more water and salt tablets for his men, but several
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  Speaker 1: troops had already become victims of heat prostration. According to
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  Speaker 1: First Sergeant Lewis J. Mishaloni, Tarawa's sands were as white
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  Speaker 1: as snow and as hot as red white ash from
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  Speaker 1: a heated furnace. Back on Green Beach, now eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: yards behind LT. One six, McCloud's lt three six began
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  Speaker 1: streaming a shore. The landing was uncontested, but nevertheless took
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  Speaker 1: several hours to execute. It was not until eleven hundred
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  Speaker 1: the same times that Jones's leading elements linked up with
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  Speaker 1: the second Marines before three six was fully established ashore.
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  Speaker 1: The attack order for the eighth Marines was the same
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  Speaker 1: as the previous day assault the strong points to the east.
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  Speaker 1: The obstacles were just as daunting on d plus two
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  Speaker 1: three fortifications were especially formidable. A steel pill box near
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  Speaker 1: the contested Burns fil pier, a coconut log and placement
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  Speaker 1: with multiple machine guns, and a large bomb proof shelter
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  Speaker 1: further inland. All three had been designed by Admiral Sacchiro,
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  Speaker 1: the Master Engineer, to be mutually supported by fire and observation,
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  Speaker 1: and notwithstanding Major Crow's fighting spirit, these strong points had
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  Speaker 1: effectively contained the combined forces of two eight and three
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  Speaker 1: eight since the morning of D Day. On the third day,
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  Speaker 1: Crow reorganized his tired forces for yet another assault. First,
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  Speaker 1: the former marksmanship instructor obtained cans of lubricating oil and
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  Speaker 1: made his troops field strip and cleaned their guarans. Before
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  Speaker 1: the attack, Crow placed his battalion executive Officer, Major William C.
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  Speaker 1: Chamberlain in the center of the three attacking companies. Chamberlain,
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  Speaker 1: a former College economics professor, was no less dynamic than
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  Speaker 1: his red mustache commander. Though nursing a painful wound in
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  Speaker 1: his shoulder from D Day, Chamberlain was a driving force
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  Speaker 1: in the repetitive assaults against the three strong points. Staff
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Hatch recalled that the executive officer was a wild man,
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  Speaker 1: a guy anybody would be willing to follow. At zero
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  Speaker 1: nine thirty mortar crew under Chamberlain's direction got a direct
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  Speaker 1: hit on the top of the coconut log emplacement, which
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  Speaker 1: penetrated the bunker and detonated the ammunition stocks. It was
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  Speaker 1: a stoke of immense good fortune for the Marines. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, the medium tank Colorado maneuvered close enough
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  Speaker 1: to the steel pill boxes to penetrate it with direct
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  Speaker 1: seventy five millimeter fire. Suddenly two of the three emplacements
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  Speaker 1: were overrun. The massive bomb proof shelter, however, was still lethal.
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  Speaker 1: Improvised flanking attacks were shot to pieces before they could
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  Speaker 1: gather momentum. The only solution was to somehow gain the
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  Speaker 1: top of the sand covered mound and drop explosives or
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  Speaker 1: thermite grenades down the air vents to force the defenders outside.
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  Speaker 1: This tough assignment went to Major Chamberlain in a squad
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  Speaker 1: of combat engineers under First Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman. While riflemen
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  Speaker 1: and machine gunners opened a rain of fire against the
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  Speaker 1: strong points firing ports. This small band raced across the
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  Speaker 1: sands and up the steep slope. The Japanese knew they
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  Speaker 1: were in grave danger. Scores of them poured out of
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  Speaker 1: the rear entrance to attack the Marines on top. Bonnyman
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  Speaker 1: stepped forward, emptied his flamethrower into the on rushing Japanese,
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  Speaker 1: then charged them with a carbing He was shot dead,
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  Speaker 1: his body rolling down the slope, but his men were
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  Speaker 1: inspired to overcome the Japanese counter attack. The surviving engineers
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  Speaker 1: rushed to place explosives against the rear entrances. Suddenly, several
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  Speaker 1: hundred demoralized Japanese broke out of the shelter and panic
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  Speaker 1: trying to flee eastward. The Marines shot them down by
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  Speaker 1: the dozens, and the tank crew fired a single dream
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  Speaker 1: shot canister round which dispatched at least twenty more. Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Bonnyman's gallantry resulted in a posthumous Medal of Honor, the
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  Speaker 1: third to be awarded to Marines on his sacrifice almost
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  Speaker 1: single handedly ended the stalemate on Red Beach three. Nor
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  Speaker 1: is it coincidence that two of these highest awards were
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  Speaker 1: received by combat engineers. The performances of Staff Sergeant Bordelin
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  Speaker 1: on D Day and Lieutenant Bonniman on D plus two
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  Speaker 1: were representative of hundreds of other engineers on only a
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  Speaker 1: slightly less spectacular basis. As an example, nearly a third
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  Speaker 1: of the engineers who landed in support of LT two
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  Speaker 1: eight became casualties. According to Second Lieutenant burle W. Rentel,
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  Speaker 1: the survivors used eight cases of TNT, eight cases of
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  Speaker 1: gelatin dynamite, and two fifty four pound blocks of TNT
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  Speaker 1: to demolish Japanese fortifications. Rentel reported that his engineers used
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  Speaker 1: both large blocks of TNT and an entire case of
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  Speaker 1: dynamite on the large bomb proof shelter alone. At some
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  Speaker 1: point during the confused Violet fighting in the eighth Marine Zone,
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  Speaker 1: and unknown to the Marines, Admiral Shibasaki died in his blockhouse.
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  Speaker 1: The tenacious Japanese commander's failure to provide back up communications
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  Speaker 1: to the above ground wires destroyed during D day's preliminary
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  Speaker 1: bombardment had effectively kept him from influencing the battle. Japanese
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  Speaker 1: archives indicate Shibasaki was able to transmit one final message
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  Speaker 1: to General Headquarters in Tokyo early on D plus two.
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  Speaker 1: Our weapons have been destroyed and from now on everyone
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  Speaker 1: is attempting a final charge. May Japan exist for ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand years. Admiral Shibasaki's counterpart, General Julian Smith, landed on
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  Speaker 1: Green Beach shortly before noon. Smith observed the deployment of
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  Speaker 1: McLeod's Lt. Three to six inland and conferred with Major Ryan,
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  Speaker 1: but Smith soon realized he was far removed from the
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  Speaker 1: main action towards the center of the island. He led
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  Speaker 1: his group back across the reef to its landing craft
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  Speaker 1: and ordered the coxin to make for the pier. At
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  Speaker 1: this point, the commanding General received a rude introduction to
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  Speaker 1: the facts of life on Batio. Although the Japanese strong
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  Speaker 1: points at the re enter it were being hotly besieged
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  Speaker 1: by Hayes's one eight, the defenders still held mastery over
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  Speaker 1: the approaches to Red Beaches. One and two well aimed
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  Speaker 1: machine gun fire disabled the boat and killed the Coxsin.
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  Speaker 1: The other occupants had to leap over the far gunwale
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  Speaker 1: into the water. Major Tompkins, ever the right man in
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  Speaker 1: the right place, then waded through intermittent fire for half
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  Speaker 1: a mile to find an LVT for the General. Even
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: this was not an altogether safe exchange. The LVT drew
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  Speaker 1: further fire, which wounded the driver and further alarmed the occupants.
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  Speaker 1: General Smith did not reach Edson and Shoop's combined CP
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  Speaker 1: until nearly fourteen hundred. Red Mike Etson, in the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: had assembled his major subordinate commanders and issued orders for
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  Speaker 1: continuing the attacks to the east. That afternoon. Major Jones's
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  Speaker 1: one to six would continue along the narrowing south coast,
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  Speaker 1: supported by the pack howitzers of one to ten and
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  Speaker 1: all available tanks. Colonel Hall's two battalions of the eighth
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  Speaker 1: Marines would continue their advance along the north coast. Jump
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  Speaker 1: off time was thirteen thirty. Naval gunfire and air support
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  Speaker 1: would blast the areas for an hour in advance. Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Hall spoke up on behalf of his exhausted, decimated landing
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  Speaker 1: teams ashore and in direct contact since d day morning.
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  Speaker 1: The two landing teams had enough strength for one more assault,
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  Speaker 1: he told Edson, but then they must get relief. Etson
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  Speaker 1: promised to exchange the remnants of two eight and three
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  Speaker 1: eight with Murray's fresh two six on Bariki at the
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  Speaker 1: first opportunity. After the assault, Jones returned to his troops
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  Speaker 1: in his borrowed tank and issued the necessary orders. Landing
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  Speaker 1: Team WON six continued the attack at thirteen thirty, passing
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  Speaker 1: through Kyle's lines in the process. Immediately it ran into
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  Speaker 1: heavy opposition. The deadliest fire came from heavy weapons mounted
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  Speaker 1: in a turret type emplacement near the south beach. This
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  Speaker 1: took ninety minutes to overcome. The light tanks were brave
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  Speaker 1: but ineffective. Neutralization took sustained seventy five millimeter fire from
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  Speaker 1: one of the Sherman medium tanks. Resistance was fierce throughout
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  Speaker 1: Jones's zone, and his casualties began to mount. The team
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  Speaker 1: had conquered eight hundred yards of enemy territory fairly easily
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  Speaker 1: in the morning, but could attain barely half that distance
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  Speaker 1: in the long afternoon. The eighth Marines having finally destroyed
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  Speaker 1: the three bunker. Nemesis made good progress at first, but
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  Speaker 1: then ran out of steam past the eastern end of
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  Speaker 1: the airfield. Shop had been right the night before. The
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Japanese defense may have been leaderless, but they still had
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: an abundance of bullets and a spree left. Major Crowe
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  Speaker 1: pulled his leading elements back into defensive positions for the night.
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  Speaker 1: Jones halted too, and placed one company north of the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: airfield for a direct link with Crow. The end of
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the airstrip was unmanned, but covered by fire on nearby Bairiki.
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  Speaker 1: All two ten was now in position in firing artillery
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  Speaker 1: missions in support of Crow and Jones. Company B of
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  Speaker 1: the second Medical Battalion established a field hospital to handle
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  Speaker 1: the overflow of casualties from Douyan. Murray's two six, eager
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  Speaker 1: to enter the frey, waited in vain for boats to
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  Speaker 1: arrive to move them to Green Beach. Very few landing
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  Speaker 1: craft were available. Many were crammed with miscellaneous supplies as
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the transports and cargo ships continued general unloading regardless of
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  Speaker 1: the needs of the troops. Ashore on Batio, Navy seabees
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  Speaker 1: were already at work repairing the air strip with bulldozers
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  Speaker 1: and graters despite enemy fire. From time to time, the
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  Speaker 1: Marines would call for help in sealing a bothersome bunker,
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  Speaker 1: and a bulldozer would arrive to do the job nicely.
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  Speaker 1: Navy beachmasters and shore party marines on the pier continued
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  Speaker 1: to keep the supplies coming in and the wounded going out.
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  Speaker 1: At fifteen fifty, Edson requested a working party to clear
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: bodies around pier, hindering shore party operations. Late in the day,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the first jeep got ashore a wild ride along the pier,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: with every remaining Japanese sniper trying to take out the driver.
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  Speaker 1: Sharad commented, if a sign of certain victory were needed,
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  Speaker 1: this is it. The jeeps have arrived. The strain of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the prolonged battle began to take effect. Colonel Hall reported
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: that one of his Navajo Indian code talkers had been
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: mistaken for a Japanese and shot a derelict black and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: LVT D to the shore filled with dead marines. At
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the pile was one who was still
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: breathing somehow after two and a half days of unrelenting
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: hell water. He gasped, pour some water on my face,
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  Speaker 1: will you Smith etson and Shupe were near exhaustion themselves.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Relatively speaking, the third day on Batio had been one
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of spectacular gains, but progress overall was maddingly slow, nor
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: was the n yet in sight. At sixteen hundred, General
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Smith sent this pessimistic report to General Hermley, who had
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: taken his place on the flagship. Situation not favorable for
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: rapid cleanup on ba show. Heavy casualties among officers make
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: leadership problems difficult. Still strong resistance many emplacements intact on
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: eastern end of the island. In addition, many Japanese strong
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: points to westward of our front lines within our position
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that have not been reduced. Progress slow and extremely costly.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Complete occupation will take at least five days more. Naval
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: An air bombardment a great help, but does not take
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: out emplacements. General Smith assumed command of operations Ashore at
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty. By that time, he had about seven thousand
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: marines ashore, struggling against perhaps one thousand Japanese defenders. Updated
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: aerial photographs revealed many defensive positions still intact throughout much
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of Basho's eastern tail. Smith and Etson believed they would
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: need the entire six marines to complete the job. When
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Colonel Holmes landed with the sixth Marines Headquarters Group, Smith
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: told him to take command of his three landing teams
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: by twenty one hundred. Smith then called the meeting of
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: his commanders to assign orders for D plus three. Smith
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: directed Homes to have mccleod's three to six passed through
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the lines of Jones's one to six in order to
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: have a fresh battalion lead the assault eastward. Murray's two
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: six would land on Green Beach and proceed east in
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: support of McLoud. All available tanks would be assigned to McLeod.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: When Major Jones protested that he had promised to return
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the two Shermans loan by Major Ryan, Shupe told him
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: with crisp expletives what he could do with this promise.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Shoup's second Marines, with one eight still attached, would continue
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to reduce the re entrance strong points. The balance of
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the eighth Marines would be shuttled to Bairiki, and the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: fourth battalion tenth Marines would land its heavy one hundred
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: five millimeters guns on Green Beach to augment the fires
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: of the two pack howitzer battalions already in action. Many
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of these plans were overcome by events of the evening.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: The major catalyst that altered Smith's plans was a series
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of vicious Japanese counter attacks during the night of D
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: plus two D plus three. As Edson put it, the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Japanese of obligingly gave us very able assistance by trying
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to counterattack. The end result was a dramatic change in
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the combat ratio between attackers and survivors. The next day,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Major Jones sensed his exposed forces would be the likely
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: target for any Bonzai attack and took precautions. Gathering his artillery,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: forward observers and naval fire control spotters, Jones arranged for
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  Speaker 1: field artillery support, starting seventy five yards from his front lines,
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  Speaker 1: to appoint five hundred yards out where naval gunfire would
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  Speaker 1: take over. He placed Company A on the left next
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  Speaker 1: to the airstrip and Company B on the right, next
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  Speaker 1: to the south shore. He worried about the one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty yard gap across the runway to Company C,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: but that could not be helped. Jones used a tank
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to bring a stockpile of grenades, small arms, ammunition, and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: water to be positioned fifty yards behind the lines. The
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  Speaker 1: first counterattack came at nineteen thirty. A force of fifty
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Japanese infiltrated past Jones's outposts in the thick vegetation and
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: penetrated the border between the two companies south of the airstrip.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Jones's reserve force, comprised of my mortar platoon and my
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: headquarters cooks and bakers and admin people, contained the penetration
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and killed the enemy in two hours of close in
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: fighting under the leadership of First Lieutenant Lyle Spook, specked.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: An intense fire from the pack howitzers of one ten
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and two ten prevented the Japanese from reinforcing the penetration.
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  Speaker 1: By twenty one thirty, the lines were stabilized. Jones asked
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Major Kyle for a company to be positioned one hundred
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: yards to the rear of his lines. The best Kyle
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: could provide was a composite force of forty troops from
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the Second Marines. The Japanese struck Jones's lines again at
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: twenty three hundred. One force made a noisy demonstration across
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: from Company A's lines, taunting clinking canteens against their helmets,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: yelling Banzai, while a second force attack Company B with
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a silent rush. The Marines repulsed this attack too, but
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: were forced to use their machine guns, thereby revealing their positions.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Jones asked McLeod for a full company from three to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: six to reinforce the second Marines to the rear of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the fighting. A third attack came at zero three hundred
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in the morning, when the Japanese moved several seven point
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: seven millimeters machine guns into nearby wrecked trucks and opened
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: fire on the marine's automatic weapons positions. Marine NCOs volunteered
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to crawl forward against the oncoming fire and lob grenades
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: into the improvised machine gun nests. This did the job,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and the battlefield grew silent again. Jones called for starshell
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: illumination from the destroyers in the lagoon. At zero four hundred,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: a force of some three hundred Japanese launched a frenzied
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: attack against the same two companies. The Marines met them
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: with every available weapon. Artillery fire from tenth Marines howitzers
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: on Red Beach two and Bairiki Island reigned a murderous crossfire.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Two destroyers in the lagoon Schrader d D three oh
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: one and sigsb DD five two opened up on the flanks.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: The wave of screaming attackers took hideous casualties but kept coming.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Pockets of men locked together in bloody hand to hand fighting.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Private Jack Stambaugh of B Company killed three screaming Japanese
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: with his bayonet. An officer impaled him with his Samurai sword.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Another marine brained the officer with a rifle butt. First
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Norman K. Thomas, acting commander of Company B, reached
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Major Jones on the field phone, exclaiming, we're killing them
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: as fast as they come at us, but we can't
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: hold out much longer. We need reinforcements. Jones's reply was tough,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: we haven't got them. You have got to hold. Jones's
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Marines lost forty dead and one hundred wounded in the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: wild fighting, but hold they did. In an hour, it
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: was all over. The supporting arms never stopped shooting down
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the Japanese, attacking or retreating. Both destroyers emptied their magazines
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of five inch shells. The first Battalion, tenth Marines fired
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: one three hundred rounds that long night, many shells being
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: unloaded over the pier while the fire missions were underway
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: at first light, the Marines counted two hundred dead Japanese
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: within fifty yards of their lines, plus an additional one
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: hundred twenty five bodies beyond that range, badly mangled by
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: artillery or naval gunfire. Other bodies lay scattered throughout the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: marine lines. Major Jones had to blink back tears of
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: pride and grief as he walked his lines that dawn.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Several of his marines grabbed his arm and muttered, They
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: told us we had to hold, and by God we held.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter six, read by Aaron Bennett