Tarawa is a classic example of poor intelligence and poor operational planning. Less than a year after Guadalcanal, the U.S. was in the opening phase of its central Pacific campaign. Preliminary operations had gone well, with Marines taking some atolls (ahead of Tarawa) with little-to-no resistance.
Planners expected a stiffer fight for Tarawa, but had no idea the Japanese had heavily reinforced their garrison and brought in 1,000 Korean laborers to build fortifications. But their biggest blunder was failing to account for the “neap tide” on the first two days of the invasion. The water was so shallow that Higgins boats couldn’t clear the reef, and Marines had to be dropped off hundreds of yards from the beach. Hundreds were cut down by enemy machine gun fire.
Actor Eddie Albert, a Navy Lieutenant in charge of a section of landing craft, won the Bronze Star for rescuing 47 wounded Marines from the surf and supervising the rescue of 30 more. Of the 5,000 Marines that landed on D-Day, 1,500 were killed or wounded.
You’re right about our refusal to accept casualties. Marine deaths during one month on Iwo Jima equal our total KIA from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past fourteen years. And very few people realize the 8th Air Force (which conducted daylight bombing raids over Nazi-occupied Europe) suffered more combat deaths than the Marines in the Pacific.
It was a different time and a different country. As a baby boomer, I must say that most of my generation pales in comparison to our parents and grandparents.
During a D-Day rehearsal in England, some 800 GI’s were killed when everything, for a whole bunch of reasons, turn to s**t. Ike ordered the news completely suppressed...and correctly so...it took decades until the families learned what happened to their loved ones. But could that happen today? Not a chance in hell..