Battle of Tarawa

battle_name=Battle of Tarawa

Tarawa

In order to set up forward air bases capable of supporting operations across the mid-Pacific, the Philippines, and into Japan itself, the US needed to take the Marianas Islands. The Marianas were heavily defended, and in order for attacks against them to succeed, land-based bombers would have to be used to "soften up" the defenses. However the nearest islands capable of supporting such an effort were the Marshall Islands, northwest of Guadalcanal. Taking the Marshalls would provide the base needed to launch an offensive on the Marianas, but was itself cut off from direct communications with Hawaii by a garrison on the small island of Betio, on the western side of Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Thus, in order to eventually launch an invasion of the Marianas, the battles had to start far to the east, at Tarawa.

Related Topics:
Philippines - Japan - Marianas Islands - Bomber - Marshall Islands - Guadalcanal - Hawaii - Betio - Tarawa - Atoll - Gilbert Islands

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The Japanese forces were well aware of the Gilberts' strategic location, and had invested considerable time and effort fortifying the island. The garrison consisted primarily of 2,600 Imperial Marines, the elite of the Japanese forces. In order to bolster the defenses, 1,000 Japanese and 1,200 Korean workers were brought in as well. A series of fourteen coastal defense guns, including some 8-inch guns taken from the defenses at Singapore, were located around the island and placed in concrete bunkers. A total of 500 pillboxes, "stockades" build from logs, and forty artillery pieces were scattered around the island. An airfield was cut into the bush along the high point of the island. Trenches connected all points of the island, allowing troops to move where needed, under some sort of cover. Rear-Admiral Shibasaki Keiji, who commanded the garrison, had boasted that it would take one-million men one hundred years to conquer Tarawa.

Related Topics:
Singapore - Pillbox - Shibasaki Keiji

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Betio is shaped roughly like a long, thin triangle, with the point to the east and the base on the west. The lagoon of the atoll lies to the north and east, with the entire northern coast of the island in the shallow waters of the atoll, and the southern and western sides in deeper waters. An attack would almost certainly have to approach from the lagoon; the deeper waters on the south offered no reasonable landing areas. In order to prevent this, a huge wall was constructed across the lagoon just in from the high water mark, behind which a series of machine gun posts and pillboxes could fire on anyone trying to get over the wall. A long pier was constructed pointing north from the western end of the island, allowing cargo ships to be unloaded out past the reefs and shallow waters, while still allowing them to anchor in the protected waters of the lagoon.

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