Latest / Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa / 011 - Completing the Task 2328 November 1943

Transcript

011 - Completing the Task 2328 November 1943 · Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Across the Reef The Marine Assault of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Tarawa by Joseph H. Alexander. This LibriVox recording is in
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Completing the task twenty three to twenty
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: eight November nineteen forty three, This was not only worse
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: than Guadalcanal, admitted Lieutenant Colonel Carlson, it was the damnedest
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: fight I've seen in thirty years of this business. The
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: costly counterattacks during the night of twenty two to twenty
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: three November effectively broke the back of the Japanese defense.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Had they remained in their bunkers until the bitter end,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the defenders probably would have exacted a higher toll in
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: American lives, facing inevitable defeat. In detail, however, nearly six
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: hundred Japanese chose to die by taking the offensive during
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the night action. The second Marine Division still had five
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: more hours of hard fighting on bea show the morning
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of d plus three before the island could be conquered.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Late in the morning, General Smith sent this report to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Admiral Hi on Maryland. Decisive defeat of enemy counter attack
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: last night, destroyed bulk of hostile resistance. Expect complete annihilation
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of enemy on BA show this date. Strongly recommend that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: you and your chief of staff come ashore this date
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to get information about the type of hostile resistance which
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: will be encountered in future operations. Meanwhile, following a systematic
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: preliminary bombardment, the fresh troops of McLeod's Lt. Three six
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: passed through Jones's lines and commenced their attack to the east.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: By now marine assault tactics were well refined. Led by
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: tanks and combat engineers with flame throwers and high explosives,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the troops of three six made rapid progress. Only one bunker,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a well armed complex along the north shore provided effective opposition.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: McLoud took advantage of the heavy brush along the south
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: shore to bypass the obstacle, leaving one rifle company to
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: encircle and eventually overrun it. Momentum was maintained, the remains
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: any Japanese seemed dispirited. By thirteen hundred, McLoud reached the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: eastern tip of Batio, having inflicted more than four hundred
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and fifty Japanese casualties at the loss of thirty four
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: of his marines. Mcloud's report summarized the general collapse of
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the Japanese defensive system in the eastern zone. Following the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: counter attacks, at no time was there any determined defensive
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: We used flamethrowers and could have used more. Medium tanks
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: were excellent. My light tanks didn't fire a shot. The
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: toughest fight of the fourth day occurred on the Red
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Beach one to two border, where Colonel Shup directed the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: combined forces of Hayes's one to eight in shuttles three
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to two against the re entrant strong points. The Japanese
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: defenders in these positions were clearly the most disciplined and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the deadliest on the island. From these bunkers, Japanese anti
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: boat gunners had thoroughly disrupted the landings of four different battalions,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and they had very nearly killed General Smith the day
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: before the seaward. Approaches to these strong points were littered
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: with wrecked LVTs and bloated bodies. Major Hayes finally got
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: some flame throwers from Crow's engineers when Lt. Two eight
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: was ordered to stand down, and the attack of one
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to eight from the east made steady, if painstaking progress.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Major Shuttle, anxious to atone for what some perceived to
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: be a lackluster effort on d day pressed the assault
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of three to two from the west and south. To
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: complete the circle. Shope ordered a platoon of infantry and
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a pair of seventy five millimeters half tracks out to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the reef to keep the defenders pinned down from the lagoon.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Some of the Japanese committed harakuri. The remainder, exhausted, fought
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to the end. Hayes's marines had been attacking this complex
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: ever since their bloody landing on the morning of d
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: plus one. In those forty eight hours, one eight fired
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: fifty four, four hundred and fifty rounds of thirty caliber
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: rifles ammunition, but the real damage was done by the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: special weapons of the engineers and the direct fire of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the half tracks. Capture of the largest position, a concrete
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: pill box near the beach enabled easier approaches to the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: remaining bunkers. By thirteen hundred, it was all over. At
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: high noon, while the fighting in both sectors was still underway,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a Navy fighter plane landed on Baho's airstrip, weaving around
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the seabees, trucks and graters. Nearby Marines swarmed over the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: plane to shake the pilot's hand. A PB two Y
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: also landed to take out press reports and the haggard observers,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: including Evans Carlson and Walter Jordan. Admiral Hill and his
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: staff came ashore at twelve forty five. The naval officers
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: marveled at the great strength of the Japanese bunker system,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: realizing immediately the need to reconsider their preliminary bombardment policies.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Admiral Hill called Batio a little Gibraltar and observed that
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: only the Marines could have made such a landing. When
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Smith received the nearly simultaneous reports from Colonel's shop and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: homes that both final objectives have been seized, he was
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: able to share the good news with Hill. The two
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: had worked together harmoniously to achieve this victory. Between them,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: they drafted a message to Admiral Turner and General Holland
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Smith announcing the end of organized resistance on Batio. It
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was thirteen o five, about seventy six hours after PFC
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Moore first rammed LVT four Dash nine My Dolores onto
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the sea wall on Red Beach one to begin the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: direct assault. The stench of death and decay was overwhelming.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Beatio would be more habitable, reported Robert Sharad if the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Marines could leave for a few days and send a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: million buzzards in working parties sought doggedly to identify the dead.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Often the bodies were so badly shattered or burned as
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to eliminate distinction between five and foe. Chaplains worked alongside
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: burial teams equipped with bulldozers. General Smith's administrative staff worked
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: hard to prepare accurate casualty lists. More casualties were expected
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: in the mop up operations in the surrounding islands and Apamama.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Particularly distressing was the report that nearly one hundred listed
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Marines were missing and presumed dead. The changing tides had
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: swept many bodies of the assault troops out to sea.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: The first pilot Ashore, reported seeing scores of floating corpses
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: miles away over the horizon. The Japanese garrison was nearly
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: annihilated in the fighting. The Marines, supported by naval gunfire, carrier,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: aviation and Army Air Force units, killed ninety seven percent
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of the four thy eight hundred thirty six troops estimated
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: to be on Batio during the assault. Only one hundred
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: forty six prisoners were taken. All but seventeen of them
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Korean laborers. The Marines captured only one Japanese officer, thirty
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: year old Kiyoshi Oda from Nagasaki, a special duty ensign
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: in the seventh Sassebo Special Landing Force. Ensign Oda told
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: his captors the garrison expected the landings along the south
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and southwest sectors instead of the northern beaches. He also
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: thought the reef would protect the defenders throughout periods of
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: low tide. Shortly before General Julian Smith's announcement of victory
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: on Batio, his army counterpart, General Ralph Smith signaled making taken.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: In three days of sharp fighting on but Territory Island,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the army wiped out the Japanese garrison at the cost
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of two hundred American casualties. Bad blood developed between Howland
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: mad Smith and Ralph Smith over the conduct of this operation,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: which would have unfortunate consequences in a later amphibious campaign.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: The grimy Marines on Beatio took a deep breath and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: sank to the ground. Many had been awake since the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: night before for the landing. As Captain Karl Hoffman recalled,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: there was just no way to rest. There was virtually
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: no way to eat, mostly it was close hand to
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: hand fighting and survival. For three and a half days,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: it seemed like the longest period of my life. Lieutenant
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Lillibridge had no nourishment at all until the afternoon of
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: d plus three. One of my men mixed up a
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: canteen cupful of hot water, chocolate, coffee and sugar and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: gave it to me, saying he thought I needed something.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It was the best meal I ever had. The marine
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: stared numbly at the desolation that surrounded them. Lieutenant Colonel
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Russell Lloyd, executive officer of the six Marines, took a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: minute to scratch out a hasty note to his wife, saying,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I'm on Tarawa in the midst of the worst destruction
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Chaplin Willard walked along red beech one,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: finally clear of enemy pill boxes. Along the shore, he wrote,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I counted the bodies of seventy six Marines staring up
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: at me, half in half out of the water. Robert
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Sharad also took the opportunity to walk about the island.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: What I saw on Betio was, I am certain one
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: of the greatest works of devastation wrought by man Sharad
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: whistled at the proliferation of heavy machine guns and seventy
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: seven millimeters anti boat guns along the northwest shore. As
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: he described one scene, Amtrak number four Dash eight is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: jammed against the seawall barricade. Three water log marines lie
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: beneath it. Four others are scattered nearby, and there is
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: one hanging on a two foot high strand of barbed
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: wire who does not touch the coral flat at all.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Back of the seventy seven millimeter gun are many hundreds
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of rounds of seventy seven millimeter ammunition. Other Japanese forces
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: in the Gilberts exacted a high toll among the invasion force.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Six Japanese submarines reached the area during Deep plus two.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: One of these, the Eye Dashed one seventy five torp,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: pedoed the escort carrier Liscombe Bay just before sunrise on
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: twenty four November off Macon. The explosion was terrific. Admiral
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Hill saw the flash at Tarawa, ninety three miles away,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and the ship sank quickly, taking six hundred and forty
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: four souls to the bottom. The Marines on Batho conducted
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a joint flag raising ceremony later that same morning, two
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: of the few surviving palm trees were selected as poles,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: but the marines were hard put to find a British flag. Finally,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Major Holland, the New Zealand officer who had proved so
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: prophetic about the tides at Tarawa, produced a union jack.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: A field musician played the appropriate bugle calls. Marines all
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: over the small island stood and saluted each could reckon
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the cost. At this time came the good news from
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Captain James Jones, brother to Major Willie K. Jones. At Appamama.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Jones's five Amphibious Corps Reconnaissance Company had landed by rubber
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: rafts from the Transports submarine Nautilus during the night of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: twenty to twenty one November. The small Japanese garrison at
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: first kept the scouts at bay. The Nautilus then surfaced
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and bombarded the Japanese positions with deck guns. This killed
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: some of the defenders. The remainder committed harakiri. The island
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: was deemed secure by the twenty fourth. General Julian Smith
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: sent General Hermley and McLeod's Lt. Three to six to
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: take command of Apamama until base defense forces could arrive.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: General Smith kept his promise to his assault troops at Tarawa.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Amphibious Transports entered the lagoon on twenty four November and
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: backloaded combat teams two to eight. To Lieutenant Lillibridge, going
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: back on board ship after Batio was like going to heaven.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: The Navy personnel were unbelievably generous and kind. We were
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: treated to a full scale turkey dinner. The Navy officers
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: helped serve the food, but Lillibridge, like many other surviving
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Trees leaders, suffered from post combat trauma. The lieutenant had
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: lost over half the members of his platoon and he
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: was consumed with guilt. With the second Marines and eighth
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Marines off to Hawaii, McCloud's three sixth en route to
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Appa Mama, and Murray's two six beginning its long trek
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: through the other islands of the Tarawa Atoll. Major Jones's
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: one six became the last infantry unit on Batio. Its
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: work was tedious, burying the dead, fleshing out diehard snipers,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: hosting visiting dignitaries. The first of these was Major General
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Holland Smith, the five Amphibious Corps commander, flew to Batio
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: on twenty four November and spent an emotional afternoon viewing
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the carnage with Julian Smith. Howland Matt Smith was shaken
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: by the experience. In his words, the sight of our
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: dead floating in the waters of the lagoon and lying
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: along the blood soaked beaches is one I will never forget.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Over the pitted, blasted island hung a miasma of coral
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: dust and death, nauseating and horrifying. Major Jones recalled that
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Holland Smith had tears in his eyes as he walked
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: through the ruins. Robert Sharad also accompanied the generals. They
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: came upon one site that moved all of them to tears.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It was a dead marine leaning forward against the sea wall,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: one arm still supported upright by the weight of his body.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: On top of the sea wall. Just beyond his upraised
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: hand lies a blue and white flag, a beach marker
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: to tell succeeding waves were to land. Holland Smith cleared
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: his throat and said, how can men like that ever
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: be defeated? Company D second Tank Battalion was designated as
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the scout company for the second Marine Division for the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Tarawa Operation. Small elements of These scouts landed on Ida
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: and Buada Islands while the fighting on Batio still raged,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: discovering and shadowing a sizeable Japanese force. On twenty three November,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Manly Kerr's third Battalion, tenth Marines landed on Ida.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: The battalion's pack howitzers were initially intended to augment fires
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: on Batio. When that island finally fell, the artillerymen turned
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: their guns to support the second Battalion, sixth Marines in
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: clearing the rest of the islands in the atoll. Lieutenant
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Colonel Murray's Lt. Two six boarded boats from Batio at
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: zero five hundred on twenty four November and landed on Buada.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Murray set a fierce pace the Marines, frequently waiting across
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the sandspits that joined the succeeding islands. Soon he was
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: out of range of Curry's guns on Ida. Curry detached
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: battery g to follow Murray in trace. The Marines learned
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: from friendly natives that a Japanese force of about one
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five naval infantry was ahead on the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: larger island of Bouriki, near the northwest point of the atoll.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Murray's lead elements caught up with the enemy at dusk
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on twenty six November. There was a sharp exchange of
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: fire in very thick vegetation before both sides broke contact.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Murray positioned his forces for an all out assault in
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the morning. The Battle of Buriki on twenty seven November
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: was the last engagement in the Gilberts, and it was
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: just as deadly as each preceding encounter. With the Special
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Naval Landing Forces. Murray attacked the Japanese defensive positions at
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: first light, getting one salvo of supporting fire from Battery
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: G before the lines became too intermingled in the extended melee. Here,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the fighting was similar to Guadalcanal, much hand to hand
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: brawling and tangled underbrush. The Japanese had no elaborate defenses
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: as on Batio, but the Imperial Sea soldiers took advantage
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: of cover and concealment, made every shot count and fought
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the last man. All one hundred seventy five were slain.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Murray's victory was dearly bought, thirty two officers and men killed,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: fifty nine others wounded. Following day, the Marines crossed to
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the last remaining islet. There were no more Japanese to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: be found. On twenty eight November, Julian Smith announced remaining
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: enemy forces on Tarawa wiped out. Admiral's Nimt and spruance
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: came to Batio just before Julian Smith's announcement. Nimits quickly
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: saw that the basic Japanese defenses were still intact. He
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: directed his staff to diagnose the exact construction methods used.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Within a month, an identical set of bunkers and pill
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: boxes was being built on the naval bombardment island of
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Kahulawe in the Hawaiian Islands. Admiral Nimts paused to resent
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the first of many combat awards to marines of the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: second Marine Division. In time, other recognition followed. The entire
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Colonel David Monroe's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Shute received the Medal of Honor. Major Jim Crow and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: his executive officer, Major Bill Chamberlain received the Navy Cross,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: so did Lieutenant Colonel Herb Amy posthumously, Major Mike Ryan,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and Corporal John Spelane, the l v T crew chief
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and prospective baseball star who caught the Japanese hand grenades
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: in mid air on d Day before his luck ran out.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Some of the senior officers in the division were jealous
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of Shupe's medal of Honor, but Julian Smith knew full
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: well whose strong shoulders had borne the critical first thirty
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: six hours of the assault. Shupe was philosophical, as he
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: recorded in his Combat note Book. With God in the U. S.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Navy in direct support of the second MARDV, there was
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: never any doubt that we would get batio. For several hours, however,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: there was considerable haggling over the exact price we were
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to pay for it. End of Chapter seven read by
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Aaron Bennett