Pacific · 20 Nov 1943 – 23 Nov 1943
Battle of Tarawa
U.S. Marines secured Betio after four days of amphibious fighting, overcoming shallow reefs and a prepared Japanese defense at heavy cost.
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The Battle of Tarawa was fought from 20 to 23 November 1943, chiefly on Betio, at the southwestern end of Tarawa Atoll. The U.S. objective was to capture the island’s airstrip and remove the Japanese garrison from the Gilbert Islands. The 2nd Marine Division made the assault, supported by a large naval force. Japanese defenders included the 3rd Special Base Defense Force and the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force; construction workers, including Korean laborers, also worked on the island’s defenses and were caught in the fighting.
On 20 November, naval and air bombardment preceded the landings on Betio’s northern, lagoon-facing shore. The first assault waves reached the beaches in tracked landing vehicles, but the low tide left many conventional landing craft stranded on the reef. Marines had to wade through exposed water under fire, and seawalls and strongpoints slowed their advance. By nightfall the Marines held two separate footholds on the northern shore: a beachhead a few hundred yards deep astride the long pier on Red 2 and Red 3, and a pocket on the island’s northwest point at the west end of Red 1, with almost 600 yards of Japanese-held ground between them. The landing force remained under severe pressure.
On 21 November, reinforcements landed, and Marines expanded the beachheads. Marines on Red 1 cleared Green Beach at the western end, and troops from Red 2 crossed the airfield to the southern shore, while improved tidal conditions eased the arrival of supplies and supporting units. That evening the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, landed on Green Beach. Fighting continued around the central airstrip and the Japanese positions on the island. U.S. forces pressed inland and began to divide the defense, but strongpoints still disrupted movement between the landing sectors.
By the evening of 22 November, U.S. pressure from the north and west had driven most surviving defenders into the eastern third of Betio, beyond the east end of the airfield, and into one pocket on the northern shore at the boundary of Red 1 and Red 2. Japanese commander Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki had been killed during the battle. Japanese counterattacks during the night against the 6th Marines on the southern shore failed to dislodge them. On 23 November, U.S. forces destroyed the Red 1–Red 2 pocket and reached the eastern tip shortly after 1300. Organized resistance ended, and Betio was declared secure.
The result was an Allied victory, but the cost was substantial. U.S. Marine losses were reported as 1,009 killed and 2,101 wounded; another account gave 1,057 killed, 2,351 wounded, and 88 missing. U.S. Navy deaths were reported separately, with sources giving 646 or 687 killed, including the loss of the escort carrier *Liscome Bay* to a submarine torpedo while supporting the operation. Japanese losses were reported as 4,690 killed; 17 Japanese soldiers and 129 laborers were captured. The available figures did not consistently separate military personnel from laborers. The battle exposed the consequences of inaccurate tide estimates, inadequate reef access, and the difficulty of suppressing fortified positions before a landing.