ATTACK IN THE CENTRAL PACIFIC

[Music] con [Music] between the Asiatic and American continents more than 10,000 Islands large and small rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean many of the islands are the shells of once active volcanoes which have Lain dormant for centuries near the equator many of the dots in the expanse of Blue Pacific are atoles chains of tiny Coral Islands strung in a ring around a central Lagoon in November 1943 it became urgent for US forces to seize certain strategic atol in the Gilbert Islands tiny strips of coral and sand named Mon and tar the Japanese brought to the war in the Pacific their firsthand experience in combat gained on the Asiatic continent in the 1930s in manuia and China through necessity the Japanese soldier became practiced in adapting himself to any conditions no matter how miserable though shorter than ocidental troops the Japanese were Husky and well-geared to the demands of jungle fighting but the nepes fighting man also had a good workking knowledge of more formal Warfare early in World War II the Japanese had gained the reputation of being fanatical fighting men it was a well-earned reputation before leaving the home islands of Japan each Soldier was thoroughly indoctrinated in Bushido the way of the warrior under this code the only honorable alternative to victory in battle was death in the name of the emperor on Islands spread all over the far Pacific Japanese fighting men had vowed to kill kill as many of the hated American enemy as possible and to die rather than [Music] surrender this fanatical will to die on the part of the individual Japanese fighting man was to make of the Pacific War a series of bloody engagements stretching across thousands of miles of ocean to the shores of Japan itself some 9 million Japanese fighting men were dedicated to dying for their emperor and in honor of their ancestors during World War II in the Pacific many were to have that opportunity at Quebec in August 1943 the state of the war was assessed by the allies and some basic agreements for the further prosecution of the war were reached with relation to the war against Japan Allied Leaders concluded that it must be stepped up and that it was advisable to begin at once a new Avenue of attack through the Central Pacific that important decision was to hasten the end of the war with Japan in the Central Pacific the Gilbert Islands were the first objective seizure of these islands on the Equator was a necessity if the Central Pacific route was to be pursued successfully the most urgent need before final planning of the operation began was for upto-date air photographs of the islands these indicated that the enemy was thoroughly entrenched in the Gilberts one atol Tarawa had been turned literally into a fortress the enemy had transported heavy guns to the ATL and had carefully constructed defense positions Navy photo reconnaissance officers realized at once that this would be no routine operation taroa looked like a ring of Steel the next step in preparing for the invasion was to soften up the targets and the Gilberts as well well as neighboring islands with air strips and the Marshal in October and November 1943 US planes operating in the Central Pacific flew a series of raids on Japanese positions in the Gilberts and Marshalls the crews were well prepared for opposition it was apparent to all that the Japanese would fight stubbornly for their Central Pacific bases the US Airmen were not [Music] [Music] disappointed the prin principal Targets in the marshals were the airfields from which the Japanese planes operated bases which were indispensable to the enemy's defense of the Central Pacific area the enemy's Marshal Island bases were visited regularly by American bombers from November 14th to November 21st American Air Force bombers flew 13 missions to the Gilberts and Marshals in late November 1943 Cairo was the setting for a major Conference of Allied government leaders on that hot Egyptian autumn day the conduct of the war against the enemy in the Pacific was being crystallized the path to final Victory charted the US England and China were committed to a policy of unrelenting pressure against the Japanese at the same time on the front in China the Japanese armies were driving ahead while the Cairo conference was in session nepon ground forces were attacking the Chinese and Hunan Province [Applause] [Applause] in those same late November days in Russia the Red Army was picking up momentum in its drive to roll back the Nazi Advance by November 21st Russian troops had Advanced beyond the shores of the Neer at the same moment Halfway Around the Globe two American task forces from Hawaii and New Zealand were converging on the Gilbert Islands a key position in the Japanese ring of outer defenses the trip to the Target was made in radio silence to lessen the chances of an attack by enemy planes or Subs in the two amphibious task forces some of the units had to be refueled on route that operation was often a delicate one when a fighting ship needed fuel the job had to be done and Pro monly regardless of what the weather was like in the southern Attack Force on route from New Zealand the Marines were briefed on every detail of basio island of Tarawa atol where one of the Gilbert's invasions was to be made these briefings were repeated so that every man would be well familiar with the Island's topography and landmarks the men put their spare time to good use they were well aware that a weapon in top working order would often save their lives as the ships neared the objective the crews expected an enemy air attack but the convoys were not disturbed by any organized enemy raid just before dday the men dedicated their efforts soon after Dawn on November 21st 1943 The Assault on the atol began at mon the bombardment by ships and carrier-based planes continued for almost 5 hours [Music] one reinforced regimental combat team the 165th of the Army's 27th division was to make the attack against mon this was the first taste of combat for the men on the assault waves after the aerial bombing and strafing of the Target and the supporting Naval bombardment the actual seizing of the objective was finally as always the job of the men with the rifles the Army troops invading mon had a six or 7 to1 superiority in numbers and Firepower the soldiers landed against relatively light resistance it became apparent that the enemy had not planned a strong defense of mon against a sizable Invasion Force ashore on batari island of meatl the soldiers encountered some opposition but successfully overwhelmed the small enemy Garrison the island was taken by the men of the 165th Army regimental combat team after 3 days of sporadic fighting many military men felt that the job should have been achieved in a shorter time considering the light Japanese defenses in any case the enemy had been thoroughly wiped out at Mak 100 miles to the south of mon BHO island of Tarawa ATL was the target for the southern Attack Force early on D-Day morning the Navy went into action once more in an attempt to soften up the objective for the landing The Plan called for Carrier planes to coordinate their attacks with the warships bombardment and with the invasion pattern itself but the schedule soon became upset and the confusion on the timing of various elements of the attack had a calamitous effect on the operation the Navy shelled the target island of baso on D-Day morning for only 3 hours before the landing [Music] [Music] the bombardment was Heavy while it lasted yet no one knew for certain of course what damage was being done to the enemy's defenses someone said confidently that not a [ __ ] would be left alive on the island to contest the Marine's assault before Dawn The Invasion vehicle started for the line of departure the naval bombardment continued at intervals almost to H hour the first waves of Marines luckily were in amphibian tractors succeeding waves were in landing boats at the fringing reef fate and the tides were against the Marines and the boats the tide was lower than expected and the boats were not able to clear the wreath thus a great percentage of the assault force was stuck 500 yd from the beach fortunately the amphibian tractors which carried the first assault waves climbed right over the reef and continued into the beach but on that eventful D-Day at taraa the Landing Force had only about 100 amp tracks these invaluable track vehicles made many trips from The Reef to the shore before being knocked out by enemy fire as H hour neared carrier planes straight enemy [Music] positions the assault Marines continued toward Shure while the carrier pilots had one last crack at the enemy at 910 the Marines of the second division landed on the enemy's Fortress the fight for a foothold on the tiny Beach of Tarawa was tougher than anything the Marines had ever faced casualties were very heavy this was the first Pacific Invasion which was vigorously opposed on the beach during those first bitter hours it grew readily apparent that the fight for Tarawa was to be a battle of epic proportions of the hundreds of Marines who had been forced to wait in to shore from The Reef many were cut down by the enemy's fire but none had hesitated those who died were killed moving forward against the [Music] enemy with the Marines at Tarawa time and life correspondant Robert shered was with the assault forces throughout the battle we got a sure all right at least a lot of us did but that was only the [Music] [Music] start except for our tiny Beach head the enemy held the rest of the small island they had to be dug out of their pill boxes and bunkers we calculated that the chances of a man being killed or wounded within the hour were about 50/50 the enemy's defenses were incredible great coconut log bunker the job of getting the Japanese inside was left to the men on foot men with rifles grenades and flamethrowers we lost most of our flamethrowers trying to get us sure but the ones we had left worked overtime [Music] there was no such thing as a rear area in this battle the enemy was always only a few yards [Music] away the violence of TOA was stunning the only way to get at the Japanese was to flees them out or kill them in their [Music] holes the decisive Factor at the turning point of the battle was the fighting Spirit of the United States Marines there were no greater Heroes on baso than the medical Coran as a number of wounded past a thousand there was an overwhelming amount of work for them to do as many wounded as possible had to be evacuated the final count was 2,11 Americans wounded in action on taroa above all other islands of the Pacific the devastation of Modern Warfare was laid out for all to see there was some muffing up to do as always after a battle there were still caves to blow up or close up still some dieh hard Japanese snipers to be routed out of their holes on taroa WE encountered the fanaticism that we had come to expect of the enemy [Music] 4,500 Japanese were killed on this tiny stinking Island altogether only 17 Japanese surrendered less than 1 half of 1% in addition 129 Koreans gave up they had served as laborers but doubled as Riflemen the enemy soldiers always seemed surprised when they found that we didn't kill prisoners judging by the nature of the enemies we had seen him in action the road to Tokyo still some 4,000 Mi long would be a rough one for every prisoner ton baso we would find hundreds of thousands of fanatical Japanese between taroa and Tokyo who were ready to fight to the death the battle on this Sandy square mile was the toughest single fight in the 167e history of the Marine Corps whatever lay ahead the Lessons Learned at Tara would prove invaluable in future operations against other Islands closer to Japan on November 24th at 1:30 in the afternoon only 76 hours after the first wave stormed the beach the island was declared secure the Stars and Stripes flew proudly over the island which the Japanese had turned into a carefully constructed Fortress nearby there was a second flag raising the Union Jack flying from another coconut palm proclaimed the return to British rule of taraa the capital of the British Crown Colony of the Gilbert and Ellis Islands two Marine generals named Smith Holland and Julian inspected the ruins in one brief battle 1,000 American Marines from a single division had given their lives so that other Americans on other enemy beaches might live and fight their way on across the Pacific what I saw on B show was I am sure one of the greatest works of Devastation wrought by man the enemy had boasted that he could hold this island against the own slau of a million men but he hadn't reckoned with the fighting Spirit of the United States Navy and Marine Corps 3,000 tons of bombs and shells fell on the tiny island of bashio and knocked out most of the Japanese heavy weapons but in the last analysis credit for the job of annihilating the enemy onara must go to the Marines who stormed ashore against deadly rifle and machine gun fire and F the enemy at arms length of the men who died died here in glory none died in vain and all Americans can forever be proud of the name of [Music] Tarawa the objective had been seized and the most important Single part of that objective was the air strip from which the attack against the enemy could be carried forward more more effectively before the last Japanese snipers were killed the CBS were hard at work repairing the strip the same day the island was termed officially secure the first carrier-based fighter a Hellcat landed on the island the assault Marines welcomed the first Navy pilot to the air strip now Under New Management on November 25th only 4 days after D-Day the Marines began to leave the island they had fought through 76 hours of the bloodiest battle the Marine Corps had ever experienced a battle which was to rank with other historic American struggles Bellow wood the Alamo the bonam rishard Concord Bridge on the tiny sandpit of bashio at Tarawa atol under the equatorial sun in late November 1943 they had indeed made history from the air strips in the Gilberts us planes extended their range over the Eastern Carolin and the eastern and Central Marshals American bombers increased the frequency of their visits to the marshals the island grouped next on The Invasion timetable in the Central Pacific [Music] theater us pilots in that area became most familiar with half a dozen atols in the Marshall group The Lessons Learned at taraa were carefully remembered by the pilots who gave the marshals a pre-invasion going over [Music] and the Lessons Learned at taroa and the Gilberts were to save the lives of thousands of Americans as US forces pressed the attack on the road to Tokyo and final [Music] Victory plunging deeper into enemy Waters with each fresh assault the US Navy paced the attack in the amphibious drive toward the enemy's home Islands during World War II the Navy made maximum use of two weapons which had not ther for been used on a large scale by American forces the carrier with its complement of attack plane and the submarine the war at Sea across the broad stretches of the Pacific was an exciting enormously complex Naval chess [Music] match for freedom and jce for [Music] feel