Being there . . . . at 0250 beneath a third-quarter moon on the early morning of 20 November 1943 as 16 troop transporters sail into the blue lagoon of Tarawa Atoll in the heart of the Gilbert Island to attack a “thinly-defended” tiny beach on irregular-shaped Betio Island of meager, gaunt palm trees. Within a few hours, the first step will be taken in America’s carefully planned strategy to island-hop across the Central Pacific to Tokyo. Then, watch sadly, nay angrily, how the Battle of Tarawa is destined to be the bloodiest, cruelest, fight-to-the-bitter-death, invasions of the Pacific War . . .
A BRUTAL BAPTISM OF FIRE
AWAITED THE 18,000 TROOPS OF THE 2nd MARINE DIVISION
“Like hailstones, bullets pinged all around the caterpillar-tracked amphibious landing vehicle I was in, my amtrac or tractor, as us Marines were being churned through the waves toward the beach. Two shells hit the water 20 yards off my port side and sent up regular geysers. I swept the beach with a machine gun just to keep the bastards down as much as possible. Can’t figure out how I didn’t get it in the head or neck or something. We were 100 yards in now and . . . they were knocking boats out right and left. An amtrac got hit, stopped and burst into flames with men jumping out like torches. Bullets ricocheted off the coral and up under our amtrac. It must have been one of those bullets that got the driver . . . the lieutenant jumped in and pulled the driver out and drove ours until a few seconds later he himself got hit . . .”
Private N.M. Baird, an Oneida Indian, describing his unit’s landing on Betio Island at 0550
“THE BATTLE OF TARAWA, Naval History Special Edition”, by Daniel Rogers. Naval Institute Press: 80 pages, sc; $19.95
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
Accurate books about battles are rare, whether written by historians, by commanders of forces in the battles described, by direct participants in the fighting, or even the correspondents who were close beside them as they fought.
In its decades of publishing quality books, Naval Institute Press has given the public, the buff, and the serious student of war the opportunity to “be there” to know, in so as possible the truths of battle. From that near-catastrophic morning of November 20th, 1943, thousands of reports, articles, books, documentaries, etc., a modicum of a fraction by those who had participated in the three-day slaughter, let alone any by a Marine pinned down on that death beach for hours that morning.
For the first time, as far as this reviewer is aware, a priceless digest, the chronologically ACCURATE and demanding account of exactly what happened before, during the landings, and the initial failures to move the short distance inland, can find its way onto to our laps and hands. To his everlasting credit, author Daniel Rogers, with help from NIP Editor Glenn Griffith, Copy Editor Annie Rehill, Designer Kelly Oaks, and Production imprimatur Susan Corrado, have insisted on original landing maps, photographs larger than postage stamps, and superlative narration, timetables, relevant sidebars, brief biographies of commanders, including the tragic fate of Colonel William M. Marshall as Commander of Combat Team 2.
To be clear, this mouth-watering Naval History Special Edition is not the jaw-dropping, definitive Battle for the Tarawa Toll waiting to be written (hopefully soon by Rogers, and his team). But it is an exciting introduction designed to trigger one’s thirst for more reading of key battles, events of armed conflicts, and full biographies of heroes. If Rogers’ “The Battle of Tarawa” proves irresistible reading, wait until you read “The Battle of Guadalcanal” by Trent Hone, and the future Battle titles. Then, try just one Battleship, Aircraft Carrier, Heavy Cruiser Special Edition!
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