THE GILBERT LANDINGS

Evening Star, Issue 25034, 29 November 1943, Page 3

THE GILBERT LANDINGS

HEAVY AMERICAN LOSSES JAPANESE GARRISONS WIPED GUT WASHINGTON, November 27. Only a few hundred out of between 2,000 and 3,000 United States marines escaped death or injury m the first landing on Tarawa Island, in the Gilbert Groip. Colonel F. Knox, the Secretary of the Navy, issued a warning that, although the Gilberts were occupied after only four days' fighting, the public should be prepared for heavy American losses. He estimated the Japanese casualties at 6,000. Few Japanese were taken alive when the landings were made on November 20 on Tarawa, Abemana, and Makin Islands.

One \v;ir correspondent s;, ys that the stiff est price in human life per yard ever exacted in the history of the United States marines was paid for Tarawa. Lieutenant - colonel "Evans Carlton, n well-known commando lender, said that tho Japanese hart been warned in advance of the impending American invasion. TOUCH-AND-GO AT TARAWA.

Tho position on Tarawa at the end | of the first dav was so critical that any Japanese counter-attack might have exterminated the Americans, who held only three narrow beach-heads, one 150. vards deep. The heaviest naval shellfire failed to wipe out the strong enemy defence installations, and the pillboxes, which were five feet thick, could not be penetrated by the 75-millimetre guns. The marines had to storm ashore through treacherous coral reefs and a high surf, which upset the light invasion craft. Wave after wave of Americans had to struggle under a murderous fire for 500 yards through water reaching to their necks. They met Tojo's Imperial Marines, the elite of the Japanese forces. " Nowhere can the smell of death lingering over shell-pocked beaches and shattered blockhouses be escaped," writes tho correspondent. " Dead Japanese lie in the ruins of burned-out pillboxes, in the surf, and scattered among the palm fronds, where they had perched as snipers." COSTLY LESSONS. " In the momentary pause before the next leaip in the direction of Tokio trained Navy observers are passing on tho lessons 'learned in the. costly invasion of the Gilbert Group, particularly of Tarawa," says the ' New York Times ' correspondent at Pearl Har- | bour. " There is no question that wc I learned a great deal in our first invasion of a "coral atoll. For example, next time the invaders will have blueprints of the ingenious Japanese revetments, the walls of which are made of cocoanut trees, with sand, coral, and stone packed into tho walls to form barriers four to five feet thick. The Japanese also successfully used infiltration tactics and) trickery to delay their eventual elimination. But oiw thing is certain —in spite of our continued successes and the steady advance, into the enemy's arc of outer defences, the Japanese are not weakening. I hey still die crving "Banzai!" In the Gilberts thev charged, laughing and cryin" hysterically, in hopeless counterassaults. It is necessary to keep this in mind. Advance in the Pacific will be costly against the dogged, fanatical resistance of a foe who does not know how to surrender."

NEXT MOVES. The Washington correspondent of the ' New York Times ' says that after the capture of the Gilbert group a broad picture of the Pacific appears to he developing as follows-.—First, it expected that co.rly control of the Marshall Islands will give us a safe pas-sa-"e across almost two-thirds of the Pacific enabling early moves against the mandated islands. Secondly, the slow but inevitable deterioration of the remaining Japanese positions in the South-west Pacific brings nearer the day when a major move may be made either against the Indies or the Philippines, probably the latter; thirdly, if the Philippines are retaken all the Jap-anese-conquered: islands to the south will be virtually cut off. Then the time would be ripe for a concerted drive against Japan proper, with American forces flowing from the Philippines and Central Pacific' bases, and from Hawaii; fourthly, such a double threat could be converted into a triple threat if Lord Louis Mountbatten's forces in the East Asia Command took up positions to strike simultaneously against the Japanese in Burma and China; fifthly, our firmly-established • bases in the Aleutians menace Japan's northern defences and are also adaptable to cooperative timing.THE JAPANESE FLEET.

" Most naval strategists and observers are convinced that the Japanese fleet will not come out to do battle until the Pacific war is Hearing a conclusive stage," says the ' New York Times ' correspondent with the Pacific fleet, Mr Foster Hailey. "The Japanese have used only their older warships and carriers in the Solomons. The enemy heavy cruisers now appear to be moving back into action, but recent reports have not indicated carrier-battleship participation. None of the lOin-gunned Japanese battleships have been in any action. It is indicated that a major ,sea battle will not come until we have fought our way much closer to the Japanese mainland."