ATTACK IN THE PACIFIC

[Music] [Music] between the Asiatic and American continents more than 10,000 Islands large and small rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean many of the islands are the shells of once active volcanoes which have lain dormant for centuries near the equator many of the dots and the expense of blue Pacific are atolls chains of tiny coral islands strung in a ring around a central Lagoon in November 1943 it became urgent for US forces to seize certain strategic atolls in the Gilbert Islands tiny strips of coral and sand named Macon and Tarawa the Japanese brought to the war in the Pacific their first-hand experience in combat gained on the Asiatic continent in the nineteen thirties in Manchuria and China through necessity the Japanese soldier became practiced and adapting himself to any conditions no matter how miserable though shorter than Occidental troops the Japanese were husky and well geared to the demands of jungle fighting but the Nipponese fighting man also had a good working knowledge of more formal warfare [Music] early in World War two the Japanese had gained the reputation of being fanatical fighting men it was a well-earned reputation before leaving the home islands of Japan each soldier was thoroughly indoctrinated in Bushido the way of the warrior under this code the only honorable alternative to victory in battle was death in the name of the emperor an island spread all over the Far Pacific Japanese fighting men had failed to kill as many of the hated American enemy as possible and to die rather than surrender this fanatical will to die on the part of the individual Japanese fighting men was to make of the Pacific War a series of bloody engagements stretching across thousands of miles of ocean to the shores of Japan itself some nine million Japanese fighting men were dedicated to dying for their Emperor and in honor of their ancestors during World War two in the Pacific many were to have that opportunity that way back in August 1943 the state of the war was assessed by the Allies and some basic agreements for the further prosecution of the war were reached with relation to the war against Japan Allied leaders concluded that it must be stepped up and that it was advisable to begin at once a new avenue of attack through the Central Pacific that important decision was to hasten the end of the war with Japan in the Central Pacific the Gilbert Islands were the first objective seizure of these islands on the equator was a necessity if the Central Pacific route was to be pursued successfully the most urgent need before final planning of the operation began was for up-to-date air photographs of the islands these indicated that the enemy was thoroughly entrenched in the Gilberts one at all Tarawa had been turned literally into a fortress the enemy had transported heavy guns to the at all and had carefully constructed defense positions Navy photoreconnaissance officers realized at once that this would be no routine operation Tarawa looked like a ring of Steel the next step in preparing for the invasion was to soften up the targets and the Gilberts as well as neighboring islands with air strips in the Marshall in October and November 1943 US planes operating in the Central Pacific flew a series of raids on Japanese positions in the Gilberts and Marshalls the pros were well-prepared for opposition it was apparent to all that the Japanese would fight stubbornly for their Central Pacific bases the US Airmen were not disappointed [Music] [Music] the principal targets in the marshals were the airfield from which the Japanese planes operated bases which were indispensable to the enemy's defense of the Central Pacific area the enemy's Marshall Island base aswer visited regularly by American bombers from November 14th to November 21st American Air Force bombers flew 13 missions to the Gilbertson Marshville in late November 1943 Cairo was the setting for a major conference of alight government leaders on that hot Egyptian autumn day the conduct of the war against the enemy in the Pacific was being crystallized the path to final victory charted the u.s. England and China were committed to a policy of unrelenting pressure against the Japanese at the same time on the front in China the Japanese armies were driving ahead while the Cairo conference was in session Nipponese ground forces were attacking the Chinese and Hunan province [Music] [Music] in those same late-november days in Russia the Red Army was picking up momentum in its drive to roll back the Nazi advance by November 21st Russian troops had advanced beyond the shores of the neighbor [Music] at the same moment halfway around the globe two American task forces from Hawaii and New Zealand were converging on the Gilbert Islands a key position in the Japanese ring of outer defenses the trip to the target was made in radio silence to lessen the chances of an attack by enemy planes or subs in the to amphibious task forces some of the unit's had to be refueled enroute that operation was often a delicate one when a fighting ship needed fuel the job had to be done and promptly regardless of what the weather was like in the southern attack force on route from New Zealand the Marines were briefed on every detail of base show island of Tarawa Atoll where one of the Gilberts invasions was to be made these briefings were repeated so that every man would be well familiar with the islands topography and landmarks the men put their spare time to good use they were well aware that a weapon and tough working order would often save their lives as the ships neared the objective the crews expected an enemy air attack but the convoys were not disturbed by any organized enemy raid just before d-day the men dedicated their efforts to ease Hetchy body on Chilly's suez consider a photographer named a dam they cook tomorrow who are implanted beanie on our team said 40 to deny numbers to our sorrow Bharata Natyam saw who started b23 bonus nakatsu air non extinguisher anak Taylor China soon after dawn on November 21st 1943 the assault on the atolls began at makin the bombardment by ships and carrier-based planes continued for almost five hours [Music] one reinforced regimental combat team the 165th of the Army's 27th division was to make the attack against maker this was the first taste of combat for the men on the assault waves after the aerial bombing and strafing of the target and the supporting naval bombardment the actual seizing of the objective was finally as always the job of the men with the rifles the army troops invading Macon had a six or seven to one superiority in numbers and firepower the soldiers landed against relatively light resistance it became apparent that the enemy had not planned a strong defense of Macon against the sizeable invasion force ashore anbu territory island of Macon at all the soldiers encountered some opposition but successfully overwhelmed the small enemy garrison the island was taken by the men of the 165th Army regimental combat team after three days of sporadic fighting many military men felt that the job should have been achieved in a shorter time considering the light Japanese defenses in any case the enemy had been thoroughly wiped out at Macon a hundred miles to the south of Macon they show alland of Tarawa at all was the target for the southern attack force early on d-day morning the Navy went into action once more in an attempt to soften up the objective for the landing the plan called for carrier planes to coordinate their attacks with the warships bombardment and with the invasion pattern itself but the schedule soon became upset and the confusion on the timing of various elements of the attack had a calamitous effect on the operation the Navy shelled the target island of a show on d-day morning for only three hours before the landing [Music] the bombardment was heavy while it lasted yet no one knew for certain of course what damage was being done for the enemy's defenses someone said confidently that not a [ __ ] would be left alive on the island to contest the Marines assault a port on the invasion vehicles started for the line of departure the naval bombardment continued at intervals almost 2h hour the first waves of Marines luckily were in EM film tractors succeeding waves were in landing boats at the fringing reef fate and the tides were against the Marines and the boats the tide was lower than expected and the boats were not able to clear the reef thus a great percentage of the assault force was stuck 500 yards from the beach fortunately the amphibian tractors which carry the first assault waves climbed right over the reef and continued into the beach but on that eventful d-day at Tarawa the landing force had only about a hundred Amtrak's these invaluable protect vehicles made many trips from the reef to the shore before being knocked out by enemy fire as a tower neared carrier plane great enemy position [Music] the assault Marines continued toward Shore while the carrier pilots had one last crack at the enemy at 9:10 the Marines of the second division landed on the enemy's fortress the fight for a foothold on the tiny beach of Tarawa was tougher than anything the Marines had ever faced casualties were very heavy this was the first Pacific invasion which was vigorously opposed on the beach during those first bitter hours it grew readily apparent that the fight for Tarawa was to be a battle of epic proportions of the hundreds of Marines who had been forced to wade him to shore from the reef many were cut down by the enemy's fire but none had hesitated those who died were killed moving forward against the enemy [Music] with the Marines at Tarawa time and Life correspondent Robert Sherrod was with the assault forces throughout the battle we gotta sure all right at least a lot of us did but that was only the start [Music] except for our tiny beachhead the enemy held the rest of the small island they had to be dug out of their pill boxes and bunkers we calculated that the chances of a man being killed or wounded within the hour were about 50/50 the enemy's defenses were incredible great coconut log bunker the job of getting the Japanese inside was left to the men on foot men with rifles grenades and flamethrowers we lost most of our flamethrowers trying to get ashore but the ones we had left worked overtime [Music] [Music] there was no such thing as a rear area in this paddle the enemy was always only a few yards away the violence of Tarla was stunning the only way to get at the Japanese was to flesh them out or kill them in their hole the decisive factor at the turning point of the battle was the fighting spirit of the United States Marines there were no greater heroes on base show than the Medical Corps Amon has a number of wounded past a thousand there was an overwhelming amount of work for them to do as many wounded as possible had to be evacuated the final count was 2101 Americans wounded in action on terra above all other islands of the Pacific the devastation of modern warfare was laid out for all to see there was some mopping up to do as always after a battle there were still Kives to blow up or close up still some diehard Japanese snipers to be routed out of their holes on Tarawa we encountered the fanaticism that we had come to expect of the enemy 4500 Japanese were killed on this tiny stinking island altogether only 17 Japanese surrendered less than 1/2 of 1% in addition 129 Koreans gave up they had served as laborers but doubled his rifleman the enemy soldiers always seemed surprised when they found that we didn't kill prisoners judging by the nature of the enemies we had seen him in action the road to Tokyo still some 4,000 miles long would be a rough one for every prisoner taken on bco we would find hundreds of thousands of fanatical Japanese between taro and Tokyo who were ready to fight to the death the battle on this sandy square mile was the toughest single fight in the 167 year history of the Marine Corps whatever lay ahead the lessons learned at Tarawa would prove invaluable in future operations against other islands closer to japan on november 24th at 1:30 in the afternoon only 76 hours after the first wave stormed the beach the island was declared secure the Stars and Stripes flew proudly over the island which the Japanese had turned into a carefully constructed fortress nearby there was a second flag raised the Union Jack flying from another coconut palm proclaimed the return to British rule of Tarawa the capital of the British Crown Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands to marine generals named Smith Holland and Julian inspected the ruins in one brief battle 1000 American marines from a single division had given their lives so that other Americans on other enemy beaches might live and fight their way on across the Pacific what I saw on be show was I am sure one of the greatest works of devastation wrought by man the enemy had boasted that he could hold this island against the onslaught of a million man but he hadn't reckoned with the fighting spirit of the United States Navy and Marine Corps three thousand tons of bombs and shells fell on the tiny island officio and knocked out most of the Japanese heavy weapons but in the last analysis credit for the job of an aisle aiding the enemy on Tarawa must go to the Marines who stormed ashore against deadly rifle and machine gun fire and fought the enemy at arm's length of the men who died here in glory none died in vain and all Americans can forever be proud of the name of Tarawa [Music] the objective had been seized and the most important single part of that objective was the airstrip from which the attack against the enemy could be carried forward more effectively before the last Japanese snipers were killed the Seabees were hard at work repairing the strip the same day the island was turned to fishel II secured the first carrier-based fighter a Hellcat landed on the island they assault Marines welcomed the first Navy pilot to the airstrip now under new management on November 25th only four days after d-day the Marines began to leave the island they had fought through 76 hours of the bloodiest battle the Marine Corps had ever experienced a battle which was to rank with other historic American struggles bellow would the Alamo the BONHOMME RICHARD conquered Britain on the tiny sands bit of a show at Tarawa Atoll under the equatorial Sun in late November 1943 they had indeed made history from the air strips in the Gilberts US planes extended their range over the eastern carolyn's and the eastern and central Marshalls American bombers increased the frequency of their visits to the Marshalls the island group next on the invasion timetable in the Central Pacific Theater US pilots in that area became most familiar with half a dozen atolls in the Marshall Group the lessons learned at Tarawa were carefully remembered by the pilots who gave the Marshalls of pre-invasion going over [Music] and the lessons learned at Tarawa in the Gilberts were to save the lives of thousands of Americans as US forces pressed the attack on the road to Tokyo and final victory [Music] plunging deeper into enemy waters with each fresh assault the US Navy paced the attack in the amphibious drive toward the enemy's home islands during World War two the Navy made maximum use of two weapons which had not they're too poor been used on a large scale by American forces the carrier with its complement of attack planes and the submarine the war at sea across the broad stretches of the Pacific was an exciting enormous Lee complex naval chess match [Music] [Music] the fire [Music]