Posted on 10/15/2023 7:05:51 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1942, the Japanese military occupying the atoll of Tarawa beheaded 17 New Zealand Coastwatchers, along with five civilians.
Tarawa, a fishhook-shaped atoll that belongs to the Republic of Kiribati, was one of many specks of South Pacific land to which Australia and New Zealand deployed World War II Coastwatchers.
These small teams of mixed civilian and service personnel, as well as locals, kept up 24-hour watch for Japanese naval movements.* The tips provided by coastwatchers in the Solomon Islands during the Guadalcanal campaign led Vice Admiral William Halsey to exclaim that “the coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the Pacific.”
But their lonely forward positions also potentially exposed coastwatchers to considerable danger.
Even as Guadalcanal was unfolding in August and September in 1942, Japan was fortifying the occupied Gilbert Islands** (present-day Kiribati) in the wake of the Makin Island raid. Seventeen coastwatchers in the Gilberts were swept up in the process, and transferred to Tarawa along with five civilians (three British, one Australian, and one New Zealander). There they were held at the atoll’s old lunatic asylum, on the islet of Betio......
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
My father was on USS Tarwara
Per your link; JFK’s PT-109 was run over by a Jap carrier and not destroyer???
My Uncle Bob was part of the force who took Tarawa. He was also at Iwo Jima. How he survived both actions, God only knows.
I joined the Marines (1969) because of him.
I’m in my 70’s. I’ve met several men that made it through the war in Europe. I’ve only known one man who made it all they way through Iwo Jima. He also out lived 3 wives and was never divorced. He was one tough old marine. It’s sad those folks are disappearing. IMO
Had an uncle who landed with the Marines on Tarawa and Saipan and collected a few purple hearts along the way. He was small im stature and a complete badass who lived a long and happy post-war life into his late 90s. Now in Arlington.
My Dad’s best friend from childhood was a Marine still MIA on Tarawa.
My Great Uncle Bob did emergency repairs on B-29’s that were forced to land at Iwo Jima. He was 30 years old, his nickname was Grampa.
Yep, at 30, he was an old guy.
Catch these sights while they last. The average height above sea level for Kiribati is two meters, making global climate change liable to send the nation’s scattered islands to Atlantis. Kiribati residents have already begun turning up in Australia and New Zealand as climate change refugees.
From the article...............................
My WW II Marine uncle who survived Iwo Jima introduced me to some Navajo Code Talkers he kept in touch with through the Marine Corps League. This VN combat vet got the chills meeting those men.
If you like to read check out a book called “With The Old Breed”. It recounts Eugene Sledge’s experiences in the Marines when he entered WWII after Guadalcanal. He considered the men who fought over there in the Pacific before he got there, the old breed. He became one of them pretty quickly.
That experience would be a true gift. The man I knew never talked about his experience being on Iwo Jima. He told me how he got there and about his wives and his hunting trips here in Idaho. Nothing about the actual fight. He didn’t speak of it and I didn’t ask. The old timers I met were full of stories about their escapades on leave and things like that. It’s probably why my time in the USN was not always exactly approved of by my superiors. Regards
The folio histories of the Marines in WWII at Project Gutenberg are worthwhile.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/22173
Thanks for the link.
One of my uncles survived Iwo Jima. Another was wounded at Guadalcanal, recovered, and went on to fight and survive Bougainville.
Yes, a real honor. My Dad and two uncles and aunt, an Army nurse in Italy, never said much about the war.
I think you and me are about the same age. I’ll be 73 next Feb. and your name here indicates you were born in 1952. You might have gotten that free trip to the South China Sea.
Regards.
71 to 78. The sub I was on and me were in the Mediterranean when Saigon fell. I have a close friend in the hospital due to cancer. He took his high school senior trip to the area you mentioned. Our generation had our trials to experience. My life has left me facing the fact “it is what it is.” Lipstick on a pig don’t make it a prom Queen but at the age of 18 you didn’t actually know it. Then comes the Dawn. The guys who I worked with prior to entering the service in 1970 told me not to worry about my girl friend while I was gone because I would find her just like I left her. They were right. A lot of things changed in my thought processes during that time. Be Safe. Regards
I can relate to some of that. Good post.
Stay safe and keep your powder dry. We’re in for tough things/times.
Regards-
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