BATTLE for the GILBERTS

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 4, 28 February 1944, Page 3

BATTLE for the GILBERTS

In December, 1941, a young officer of the Colonial Administration left

A KORERO Report

Tarawa one day ahead of the invading Japanese. He had been in command of a Government vessel which maintained contact between the scattered islands of the Gilbert Group and knew those waters like the back of his hand, especially around Betio. He came back to Betio twice. The first time he brought his vessel to within some 50 miles of the island and picked up a number of other officials who had escaped from the Japanese and headed south in a small boat. The second time was two years later when he led the U.S. Marines in through the surrounding reef to recapture Betio for the United Nations.

After his escape from the Gilberts he joined the R.N.Z. Navy and was commissioned in the rank of lieutenant. Some successful anti-submarine work in the Pacific was followed by a call to confer with Marine Corps officers to whom the recapture of the Gilberts had

been assigned. Because of his special knowledge of these waters he was asked to take the first destroyer in to Betio. * 4: Tarawa is a group of small islands. Betio is one of them. As an American report has put it : “As real estate the Gilberts aren’t much to look at.” Betio itself is about 2 miles long by 800 yards wide, and is nowhere more than 10 ft. above sea-level. Before the war there was a hospital there and administrative buildings and a staff of about twenty people. When the Marines arrived they found blockhouses with walls 15 ft. thick and a suicide garrison of 6,000 Jap. defenders. The capture of that tiny atoll cost the Marines over 1,000 dead and over 2,500 wounded. In the words of the New Zealand officer, “ they fought and died like heroes.”

The landing was made on 20th November. For a week previous the American Air Force had rained 1,000 tons of bombs on Betio. The landing itself was covered

by a naval barrage that pumped 1,500 tons of shells on to Betio’s square mile. Yet the Marines found that this tremendous concentration of explosions had done little to weaken the efficacy of the Jap. defences.

The Jap. shore batteries opened up first as the huge task force approached the island about 5 a.m. Their shooting was not good. The first few salvoes from the battleship struck a fuel dump on the island, making a grand target. The transports stopped some 12,000 yards out, and in went the two destroyers through the reef and into the lagoon to provide a covering barrage for the following Higgins boats. Meantime the heavy ships poured in a rain of shells from farther out, and carrier-based planes screamed down to dive-bomb the

defences. Standing out about 2,000 yards, the destroyers began their barrage and in two hours one ship fired 700 rounds of 5 in. shells at this almost point-blank range. The Jap. shore batteries replied, but scored only five hits on one of the destroyers. Enough certainly to do plenty of damage —had any of the shells exploded. * * *

Meanwhile the Marines were disembarking into Higgins boats and making for the shore. At first things were quiet, but as the small craft approached, the land batteries gave them everything they had. Then when they were still 600 yards out the boats began to strand on a shelf of coral. There was nothing for it but to wade in or transfer to the few landing-boats with shallower draft.

Plenty waded —neck-deep, chest-deep, knee-deep. There weren’t enough of the shallow-draft boats, and those available couldn’t afford to take chances. The best they could do was bring men in for a shorter wade.

And in there things were hell. An innocent looking wreck out in the lagoon was pouring in a murderous back fire. From under the long wharf machine-gun nests were raking the water. In front the Jap. pill-boxes were putting out a hail of lead. The Marines were being slaughtered. The destroyers promptly turned their guns on the wreck and silenced it. And the Marines came on. Within a little over an hour six waves had established themselves on the beach. But only just. The three beach-heads were 'only 125 ft. to 150 ft. deep, and at one the Marines were pinned for a time between the water’s edge and a log wall 20 ft. inland.

The Jap. pill-boxes and blockhouses were hard nuts to crack and were still pouring out deadly fire at nightfall. Things weren’t so good. There was little sleep that night, and those on guard, two out of every three, had orders to fire at everything that moved.

Next morning, as reserves came in, it was found that under the cover of night the Japs, had stolen out and re-established themselves on the wreck, taking American machine guns and ammunition from stranded boats. Once again they raked the incoming boats until the destroyers put them out of action.

Afternoon saw an improvement in the situation. Some tanks and 75 mm. guns were ashore and were knocking out the blockhouses at pointblank range, while infantry slipped bangalore torpedoes through the slits. The incessant bombardment was having its effect and accurate

and concentrated dive-bombing by carrier planes was cracking up the fortifications. The co-operation of the dive-bombers was amazingly accurate. At times they were working only 200 yards ahead of the attacking troops.

The blockhouses' built by the Japs, were almost impregnable. A concrete emplacement 5 ft. thick was covered with 18 in. diameter palm logs. Outside the logs were angle irons of railway rails, and over all was 10 ft. to 12 ft. of sand and coral. The Commanding Officer describing them said : “ Nothing but a direct hit from a 2,000 lb. bomb would cave in or destroy that blockhouse. A number of them stood up like a house in the sky, silhouetted, and practically every one was hit by a projectile.”

Other pill-boxes were protected by two rows of palm logs 6 ft. apart with the

space filled with coral, sand and rubble. No bullet could get through them, and it took a large calibre shell to do much damage.

The positions were consolidated by nightfall on the second day, and the third day was the beginning of the end. The valuable airstrip was taken and work began on it while the Japs, were still sniping from the far tip of the island to which they had been driven. The official clean-up was seventy-six hours, but six days after the first attack odd snipers were still being rounded up, and as long as twenty days later a live Jap. came

out of a blockhouse. He’d been living in there with a lot of dead men for a long time.

The Japs, fought to the death. Some took their own lives, pointing the muzzles of their rifles to their heads and pulling the triggers with their toes. They were big men — about 5 ft. io in. in height—and the pick of the Japanese forces, the Imperial Marines. Altogether between 3,000 and 6,000 were killed, with the latter figure given by an official U.S. spokesman.

The Marines who took Tarawa were mainly those who fought on Guadalcanal and had been resting in New Zealand. They had a tough job, but in the opinion of the Naval pilot they did it splendidly. The Japs, tried several counter-attacks without success, though at times on the first day and night the Marines’ position was crucial. The only aerial reprisals attempted were the

excursions of several Jap. bombers, who would come over each morning at 5 a.m., so regularly that you could set your watch by them and after dropping a few bombs, hurry home.

Though their real estate value may be negligible, the Gilberts do possess an important strategic value. “ For the Japanese they constituted the major nerve centres of their Western Pacific Naval sphere and a threat to American communicating lines. In American hands they represent an important new dent in the Japanese defensive perimeter and a spring-board for operations in a number of directions which the continuing Pacific offensive must take.”