mini
f
ac
t:
Betio
“
… 6,000 Marines of the 2nd
Island
Marine Division [were] met …
by 4,800 enemy soldiers.
is
about
Death
”
2,
400
mile
s
south
w
e
s
t
of
Ha
w
aii
in
the
C
entr
al
P
acific
Oc
e
an.
Most of the Marine casualties occurred as they waded in from the reef onto Red Beach 1 — shown here
in the aftermath of the bloody assault and (left) today, from the spot where the LVT sits on the seawall.
Operation Galvanic was the code name for
the capture of Betio Island, in Tarawa atoll, Gilbert Is-
lands, in November 1943. Its newly constructed airfi eld
made it an important stepping stone to eventual victory
in the Pacifi c. Code-named Helen, the tiny island is 2
miles long from west to east and about 800 yards across
at its widest point. An assault force of 6,000 Marines
of the 2nd Marine Division was met on the northern
beaches by 4,800 enemy soldiers defending from one of
the most extensive defensive complexes in the Pacifi c
war. The landing force would face 14 coastal defense
guns, 40 artillery pieces covering every approach to the
Four of six M-4A2 Sherman tanks assigned island, a 4-foot-high coconut-log seawall lining the la-
to land on Red Beach 1 never made it ashore. goon with more than 100 machine-gun emplacements
Here, the wreckage of one still sits in the wa- behind it, and 500 log-and-concrete pillboxes.
ters of the lagoon today.
PHOTOSS:/IMA ABOGEVE,S: TK MAJ.TK DALE ROBINSON, USMC-RET.; TO P, USMC JANUARY 2007 MILITARY OFFICER 63
Dec_tarawa.indd 63 11/6/09 2:10 PM
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