Posted on 08/14/2006 4:46:01 PM PDT by SandRat
At that point in the war, I'm not so sure that it was really "poor-planning", as more of the learning curve. As far as the planning I don't think they realized how much of the reef would be exposed, and they did not at that point have enough amphibious tractors available to them.
Now when I did a "practice" landing on Ken Blue Beach on Okinawa in 1967 THAT was poor planning. We couldn't get over the reef (and we'd owned that beach since 1945). I wasn't there for WWII, but so much was learned on EVERY operation, I think it was part of the learning curve. I also think that a lot of what was learned by both the Navy, and the Marine Corps probably saved a lot of lives during Operation Torch, the Landings in Sicily, Italy and of course Normandy. Tough price to pay while learning but ultimately if those lessons saved other lives then sort of worthwhile. A friend of mine lost his older brother at Betio. Semper Fi.
Never been there, but I read a lot....
Wow... one Lucky Marine! Thanks for the ping snippy!
One lucky Bast...!
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