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004 - Sidebars The 2d Marine Division at Tarawa Major General Julian C Smith USMC and The Japanese Special · Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three sidebars of Across the Reef The Marine Assault
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  Speaker 1: of Tarawa by Joseph H. Alexander. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Second Marine Division at Tarawa.
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  Speaker 1: Major General Julian C. Smith's utmost concern when he assumed
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  Speaker 1: command of the Second Marine Division on one May nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forty three was the physical condition of the troops. The
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  Speaker 1: division had redeployed to New Zealand from Guadalcanal. With nearly
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  Speaker 1: thirteen thousand confirmed cases of malaria, half the division would
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  Speaker 1: have to be replaced before the next campaign. The infantry
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  Speaker 1: regiments of the Second Marine Division were the second, sixth,
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  Speaker 1: and eighth Marines, The artillery regiment was the tenth Marines,
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  Speaker 1: and the Engineers, Pioneers and Naval Construction Battalion CBS were
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  Speaker 1: consolidated into the eighteenth Marines. These were the principal commanders
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  Speaker 1: as the division began its intensified training program leading to
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  Speaker 1: Op Operation Galvanic. Commanding Officer, Second Marines, Colonel William M. Marshall,
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  Speaker 1: Commanding Officer, First Battalion, Second Marines, Major Wood B. Kyle,
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  Speaker 1: Commanding Officer, Second Battalion, Second Marines, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert R.
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  Speaker 1: Amy Junior, commanding Officer, third Battalion, Second Marines. Major John F. Schettle,
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  Speaker 1: commanding Officer sixth Marines. Colonel Maurice G. Holmes, commanding Officer,
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  Speaker 1: First Battalion, six Marines. Major William K. Jones, commanding Officer,
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  Speaker 1: Second Battalion six Marines. Lieutenant Colonel Raymond L. Murray, commanding officer,
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  Speaker 1: third Battalion six Marines. Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth F. McLeod, commanding
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  Speaker 1: Officer eighth Marines. Colonel Elmer E. Hall, commanding officer, First Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: eighth Marines. Major Lawrence C. Hayes, Junior, commanding Officer, second Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: eighth Marines. Major Henry P. Jim Crow, commanding Officer, third Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: eighth Marines. Major Robert H. Rudd, commanding Officer tenth Marines.
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  Speaker 1: Brigader General Thomas E. Borke, commanding Officer eighteenth Marines. Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Cyril W. Martyr. Other officers who would emerge in key
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  Speaker 1: roles at Tarawa included Brigadier General Leo D. Hermley, Assistant
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  Speaker 1: Division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Presley M. Rixey, commanding first Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: tenth Marines. A pack Howitzer Battalion supporting the Second Marines,
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander B. Swincewski commanding the Composite Second Tank Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: Major Henry C. Druze commanding Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion, Major
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  Speaker 1: Michael P. Ryan commanding Company L, third Battalion, Second Marines,
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  Speaker 1: and First Lieutenant William D. Hawkins commanding the scouts niper
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  Speaker 1: Platoon in the Second Marines. Altogether, eighteen thousand, eighty eight
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  Speaker 1: Marines and sailors of the division participated in the assault
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  Speaker 1: on Tarawa Atoll. About fifty five percent were combat veterans.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike Waddlecanal, the Marines at Tarawa carried modern infantry weapons,
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  Speaker 1: including gern M one semi automatic rifles, Browning automatic rifles,
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  Speaker 1: and portable flame throwers. Assault Marines landed with a combat
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  Speaker 1: load consisting of a knapsack, poncho and trenching tool, bayonet,
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  Speaker 1: field rations and gas masks quickly discarded. Many of those
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  Speaker 1: carrying heavy weapons, ammunition or radios drowned during the hectic
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  Speaker 1: debarkation from landing craft under fire at the reef's edge.
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  Speaker 1: Major General Julian C. Smith, USMC The epic Battle of
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  Speaker 1: Tarawa was the pinnacle of Julian Smith's life and career.
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  Speaker 1: Smith was fifty eight and had been a Marine Corps
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  Speaker 1: officer for thirty four years at the time of Operation Galvanic.
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  Speaker 1: He was born in Elkton, Maryland, and graduated from the
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  Speaker 1: University of Delaware. Overseas service included expeditionary tours in Panama, Mexico, Haiti,
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  Speaker 1: Santo Domingo, Cuba, and Nicaragua. He graduated from the Naval
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  Speaker 1: War College in nineteen seventeen, and, as did many other
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  Speaker 1: frustrated Marine Corps officers, spent the duration of World War
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  Speaker 1: One in Quantico, as were shipmates Colonel merrit A. Edson
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  Speaker 1: and Major Henry P. Crow. Smith was a distinguished marksman
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  Speaker 1: and former rifle team coach. Command experience in the Fleet
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  Speaker 1: Marine Force FMF was limited. He commanded the fifth Marines
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty eight, and he was commanding officer of
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  Speaker 1: the FMF Training School at New River until being ordered
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  Speaker 1: to the second Marine Division in May nineteen forty three.
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  Speaker 1: Smith's contemporaries had a high respect for him. Although unassuming
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  Speaker 1: and self effacing, there was nothing wrong with his fighting heart.
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Ray Murray, one of his battalion commanders described
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  Speaker 1: him as a fine old gentleman of high moral fiber.
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  Speaker 1: You'd fight for him. Smith's troops perceived that their commanding
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  Speaker 1: general had a genuine love for them. Julian Smith knew
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  Speaker 1: what to expect from the neep tides at Bay Show.
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  Speaker 1: I'm an old railbird shooter up on the marshes of
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  Speaker 1: the Chesapeake Bay. He said, you push over the marshes
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  Speaker 1: at high tide, and when you have a neep tide,
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  Speaker 1: you can't get over the marshes. His landing boats were
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  Speaker 1: similarly restricted as they went in toward Tarawa. Smith was
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  Speaker 1: awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for Tarawa, to go with
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  Speaker 1: the Navy Cross he received for heroic acts in Nicaragua
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  Speaker 1: a decade earlier. The balance of his career was unremarkable.
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  Speaker 1: He retired as a lieutenant general in nineteen forty six,
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  Speaker 1: and he died in nineteen seventy five, age ninety. To
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  Speaker 1: the end of his life, he valued his experience at Batio,
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  Speaker 1: as he communicated to the officers and men of the
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  Speaker 1: division after the battle, it will always be a source
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  Speaker 1: of supreme satisfaction and pride to be able to say
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  Speaker 1: I was with the second Marine Division at Tarwa the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces. Tara was the first large
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  Speaker 1: scale encounter between US Marines and the Japanese Special Naval
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  Speaker 1: Landing Forces SNLF. The division intelligence staff had forewarned that
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  Speaker 1: naval units of this type are usually more highly trained
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  Speaker 1: and have a greater tenacity and fighting spirit than the
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  Speaker 1: average Japanese Army unit, but the Marines were surprised at
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  Speaker 1: the ferocity of the defenders on Bea Sho. The Japanese
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  Speaker 1: Imperial Marines earned the grudging respect of their American counterparts
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  Speaker 1: for their esprie discipline, marksmanship, proficiency with heavy weapons, small
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  Speaker 1: unit leadership, manifest bravery, and a stoic willingness to die
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  Speaker 1: to the last man. Major William K. Jones, whose first
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  Speaker 1: Battalion six Marines engaged more of the enemy and hand
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  Speaker 1: to hand combat on Betho than any other unit, said,
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  Speaker 1: these defenders were pretty tough and they were big six foot,
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  Speaker 1: the biggest Japs that I ever saw. Major Lawrence C.
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  Speaker 1: Hayes reported that their equipment was excellent and there was
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  Speaker 1: plenty of surplus found, including large amounts of AMMO. The
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  Speaker 1: Japanese used Special Naval Landing forces frequently in the early
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  Speaker 1: years of the war. In December nineteen forty one, a
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  Speaker 1: force of five thousand landed on Guam and another unit
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  Speaker 1: of four hundred and fifty assaulted Wake Island. A small
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  Speaker 1: detachment of one hundred thirteen men was the first Japanese
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  Speaker 1: reinforcing unit to land on Guadalcanal. Ten days after the
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  Speaker 1: American landing, A three hundred and fifty man SNL LEFT
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  Speaker 1: detachment provided fierce resistance to the First Marine Division landings
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  Speaker 1: on Tulagi and Galvutu, Tanambogo early in the Guadalcanal campaign.
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  Speaker 1: A typical SNLF unit in a defensive role was commanded
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  Speaker 1: by a Navy captain and consisted of three rifle companies,
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  Speaker 1: augmented by anti aircraft, coast defense, anti boat, and field
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  Speaker 1: artillery units of several batteries each, plus service and labor troops.
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  Speaker 1: The Japanese garrison on Batio on D Day consisted of
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  Speaker 1: the third Special Base Force formerly the sixth Yokosuka Special
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  Speaker 1: Naval Landing Force, the seventh Sassibo Special Naval Landing Force,
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  Speaker 1: which included two hundred NCOs and officers of the Tatayama
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  Speaker 1: Naval Gunnery School. The one hundred eleventh Pioneers and the
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  Speaker 1: fourth Construction Unit, an estimated grand total of four thousand,
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  Speaker 1: eight hundred fifty six men. All crew served weapons on
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  Speaker 1: Batio from seven point seven millimeters light machine guns to
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  Speaker 1: eight inch naval rifles were integrated into the fortified defensive
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  Speaker 1: system that included five hundred pill boxes, blockhouses, and other emplacements.
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  Speaker 1: The basic beach defense wabs and faced by the Marines
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  Speaker 1: during their landings on the northern coast was the M
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  Speaker 1: ninety three thirteen millimeters dual purpose anti air anti boat
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  Speaker 1: heavy machine gun and many seawall emplacements. These lethal weapons
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  Speaker 1: were sighted to provide flanking fire along wire entanglements and
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  Speaker 1: other boat obstacles. Flanking fire discipline was insured by sealing
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  Speaker 1: off the front embrasures. Admiral Shibasaki organized his troops on
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  Speaker 1: Batio for and overall decisive defense at the beach. His
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  Speaker 1: men fought with great valor. After seventy six hours of
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  Speaker 1: bitter fighting, four six hundred ninety lay dead. Most of
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  Speaker 1: the one hundred and forty six prisoners taken were conscripted
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  Speaker 1: Korean laborers. Only seventeen wounded Japanese surrendered. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: three sidebars read by Aaron Bennett,