As I speak to people about leadership, I always mention the importance of Memorial Day, a day to honor the folks who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. There are so many stories of the gallantry of the men and women who have served in the wars America has engaged in, so many of these stories are unheard of. Most of the famous battles of war are usually covered by Hollywood but there are so many that are not known and should be told. I have researched a lot of these unknown battles and during my travels in the military I tried to go and see where these battles were fought. One of my trips into the South Pacific as a younger airman, I got to see the Tarawa atoll.
For those that don’t know what an atoll is, it’s a ring, or partial ring, of coral islands encircling a shallow lagoon. U.S. senior commanders, Gen. Douglas MacArthur being a notable exception, saw Tarawa as an essential part of Japan’s outer security ring in the Pacific, a small island group with a vital airfield which could not simply be bypassed or isolated.
Early on the morning of Nov. 20 — 78 years ago — Operation Galvanic began. The invasion of Tarawa, the actual movement of Marines ashore, was preceded by roughly three hours of intense, overwhelming naval bombardment. The Battle for Tarawa, for all intents and purposes, took place on Betio, a coral island a mere 2 miles long, and no wider than half a mile at any point.
Despite the savage fury of all that the Navy could throw at Betio, the Japanese were more than ready to unleash their own wall of fire as members of the U.S. Second Marine Division began to struggle ashore. These same Marines, after weeks of healing rest in New Zealand, and with their ranks now bolstered by new arrivals to replace the fallen, had already served with unimaginable valor during the long struggle for Guadalcanal.
The Japanese on Betio had actually survived the Navy’s intended hammer blow quite well. Thanks to a veritable labyrinth of heavily fortified bunkers and pillboxes constructed over the course of many months, along with the sand’s ability to absorb much of the impact of exploding shells, the Japanese garrison on Tarawa was largely intact and ready to fight and die for the emperor, if necessary.
From the first moment that Marines began to go ashore, everything imaginable seemed to go wrong. Most problems stemmed from a terrible blunder made by planners regarding tide levels during the days of the invasion. The tides were simply too low to allow the landing craft to clear the underwater coral formations. Most Marines were scheduled to land in the now legendary LCMs, or Higgins boats as they were sometimes called. However, the LCMs, which had armored hulls for the protection of embarked troops, required a minimum draft of 4 feet. They only had 3 feet in the Tarawa lagoon. The result was that the Marines had to disembark hundreds of yards offshore and wade chest deep toward Betio, under murderous enemy fire. Scores never made it to the beaches.
Against seemingly insurmountable odds, the Marines ultimately prevailed. When Tarawa was finally secured, 76 hours later, over 1,600 American Marines and sailors were dead. Another 2,200 had been wounded. There were scores of American heroes on Tarawa during the intense 76-hour campaign there, a struggle spanning parts of four days, from mid-morning on Nov. 20 until just after noon on Nov. 23.
Two of them were, Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Jr. Bonnyman’s gallantry during the horrific fighting on Tarawa earned him one of the four Medals of Honor awarded to those engaged in combat there. While leading extremely dangerous, yet successful, attacks on two heavily fortified Japanese positions on the same day, Lt. Bonnyman was killed as the last bunker was being cleared of the enemy. His Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously and actually received by his 12-year-old daughter in 1947. The other was a young Navy lieutenant. He was ordered to take his LCM boat and gather up any salvageable equipment he could find. Instead, he spearheaded an effort to rescue 46 wounded Marines while under devastating Japanese fire. For his bravery, Eddie Albert earned the Bronze Star with a V for Valor. Yes, that Eddie Albert of Green Acres fame.
The Battle for Tarawa, in terms of total casualties as a percentage of those engaged, and when considering casualties per increment of time, ranks as one of the deadliest of all. Remember those who fought, and the many who died, on a lonely island halfway around the world, during Thanksgiving week 75 years ago. They paid a terrible price to defend and protect the freedom that we enjoy every single day. We owe them so much.