Battle of Tarawa

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Battle of Tarawa

Conflict

World War II

Date

November 20 - November 23, 1943

Place

Tarawa

Result

American victory

Combatants
United States	Japan
Commanders
Julian Smith	Shibasaki Keiji
Strength
35,000	2,600 elite, 1,000 Japanese workers and 1,200 Korean laborers
Casualties
1,009 killed, 2,101 wounded	4,690 killed, 17 POW and 129 Korean freed

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was the second time the United States was on the offensive (the Battle of Guadalcanal had been the first), and the first offensive in the critical central-pacific region. It was also the first time in the War that the United States faced serious opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings had met little or no initial resistance. Tarawa was to be different.

Rear-Admiral Shibasaki Keiji, who commanded the Japanese garrison of 4,800 elite soldiers and several hundred Korean laborers, had boasted that it would take one-million men one hundred years to conquer Tarawa, which had been heavily fortified.

Image:Kiribati sm02.gif

The American Second Marine Division landed on the roughly square-mile islet of Betio on November 20, 1943. The Americans misjudged the tides and the landing vehicles were unable make it across, forcing soldiers to wade 500 yards in the open. Following three days of ferocious fighting, the island was taken. All of the Japanese soldiers were killed, except for seventeen who were too injured to fight or commit suicide, and were taken prisoner.