The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. 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 Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings met little or no initial resistance. The 4,500 Japanese defenders were well-supplied and well-prepared, and they fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the American Marines. The American invasion force was the largest World War II invasion force, about 35,000 soldiers and Marines.
The naval forces opened fire on November 20, 1943, shelling continually for over an hour and a half, stopping only briefly to allow dive bombers from the carriers to operate against fixed positions. Most of the larger Japanese guns were knocked out during this period. The island was at most points only a few hundred yards wide and the bombardment turned much of it into rubble. By the time of the invasion it was thought that no one would remain to defend what was left of the tiny island.
The Marines started their attack on the lagoon at 09:00, later than expected, and found themselves stuck on a reef some 500 yards (460 m) off shore. When the supporting naval bombardment stopped to allow the Marines to land, the Japanese emerged from the deep shelters where they had sheltered from the naval gunfire and quickly manned their emplaced gun positions. The Navy boats caught on the reef were soon set on fire by the Japanese artillery and mortar fire.
Several early attempts to land tanks and break through the wall failed when the landing craft were hit on the run in and either sank or had to withdraw while taking on water. By noon the Marines had successfully taken the beach as far as the first line of Japanese defenses. By 15:30 the line had moved inland in places but was still generally along the first line of defenses. During the later hours the Japanese defenders continued harassing fire. In one action, a Japanese Marine swam out to one of the disabled amtracs and brought its .50-caliber (12.7mm) M2 machine gun into action against the rear of the Marine lines. By the time U.S. forces retook the vehicle, several men had been injured or killed.
With the Marines holding a line on the island, the second day turned to cutting the Japanese forces in two, by expanding the bulge near the airfield until it reached the southern shore. Meanwhile the forces on Red 1 were instructed to secure Green beach, the entire western end of the island. By the end of the day, the entire western end of the island was in U.S. control.
On November 23rd, the expected Japanese counterattack took place. When the battle ended about an hour later, 200 of the 300 attackers were found dead in front of the U.S. lines, the vast majority killed by artillery fire. The Japanese had little left with which to defend the atoll. Only one Japanese officer, 16 enlisted men and 129 Koreans were alive at the end of the battle. Total Japanese and Korean casualties were about 4,713 dead. For the U.S. Marine Corps, 990 were killed and a further 2,296 wounded. A total of 687 U. S. Navy personnel also lost their lives in the landing attempts, giving a total of 1,677 American dead. Although the United States forces were seven times larger than the defending garrison, the Japanese were able to inflict substantial damage upon the U.S. force. wiki
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This is a great show for any home schoolers that are studying WWII!