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USS Tarawa (LHA 1)
~Honoring And Remembering The Heroes Of Tarawa~
Posted on 11/21/2008 10:13:07 AM PST by GATOR NAVY
TARAWA, Kiribati — Master Sgt. James M. Fawcett got on his knees and gently mixed his father’s ashes with sand on the Pacific beach where the elder Fawcett fought his way ashore 65 years ago.
Maj. James L. Fawcett died in September at the age of 89. He wanted his ashes taken to the spot where half of the men in his 50-man platoon were killed during the first two hours of the Battle of Tarawa, one of World War II’s most brutal battles.
"What a great way to end a great life," the younger Fawcett said Thursday after he fulfilled his father’s wish. He was "a guy that was just an incredible hero and an incredible father," he said.
Fawcett later joined a ceremony observing the 65th anniversary of the Nov. 20, 1943, start of the three-day battle. The United States aimed to take Tarawa from Japan, which had controlled the island since Tokyo ousted the British three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
With the Marines at Tarawa Part 1
With the Marines at Tarawa Part 2
Back when Hollywood was on America's side, this documentary won an Academy Award. There is footage in Part 1 that is the only time US and enemy troops in combat appeared on film together according to Naval History magazine.
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I've read some opinions that Tarawa should have been bypassed instead of attacked. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Eddie Albert (Green Acres) was awarded a Bronze Star for rescuing wounded Marines at Tarawa.
Well said!
Get some! Freedom isn't free! Thank you! Never forget!
For decades Tarawa’s been controversial, but the thinking that I’ve settled with is that there had to have been a Tarawa where so many lessons were learned.
Thanks for the post.
For years afterward he was an outspoken critic of the entire operation.
Ping!
Reports of the casualties were censored, because the initial landings were so badly mismanaged. It was the bloodiest single day for the U.S. armed forces since Antietam.
They say that about Pelileu, Buna, the Phillipines, etc,,lots of places could have technically been bypassed when only viewed as individual targets.
This hindsight logic is deeply flawed IMO.
The Phillipines wasnt a springboard. It was Utterly isolated and couldnt stike out after their fleet was destroyed.
Some people act like all we had to do was bypass our way right into Tokyo bay.
We destroyed their forces in these battles, we destroyed their air arm, we destroyed their fleet. Most of all we gained utterly invaluable experience for Okinawa and the Battle of Japan. (which they all wold have fought in had the bomb not worked)
Modern hit em where they aint and bypass tactics are fine,,, to a point. But IMO too much of it leads to an enemy that didnt get the word that they lost. Like in Iraq. Germany was pretty much crushed by the surrender,, conquered and occupied, Japan too. Thats why their future BS all stopped. Our guys were wonderful,, but that meatgrinder, with barely enough troops, insecure supply lines, etc,, was shameful.
Sad though it is,, its better to utterly crush the enemy. Too much bypassing undermines that.
Tarawa taught lessons that we had to have. It taught the Japs what how hard American would fight. Those things mattered later in the war. It wasnt a waste.
If anyone is entitled to be a critic of something like Tarawa, it's someone who was there.
The lessons of Tarawa is why the Marshall islands were so much more successful vis-a-vis casualties etc.
There really wasnt a good shortcut.
Was Tunisia necessary? If Germany fell,, the Africa corps would have died on the vine.
Italy? Not needed to defeat Germany.
Why not just bomb froom england,,, open up the normandy invasion amnd finally kill germany?
The Philippines didnt help bring down Japan, it could have been strangled by blockade,,after its offensive fleet power and air arm was destroyed.
It took a lot of punches to kill Japan.
My history prof suggested that Japan’s goal at Tarawa was to inflict so much pain and resistance that the United States would “give up”.
It almost worked. However, expensive as they were, the lessons were valuable and there was never a repeat of that bloody exercise.
As for bypassing islands, the Navy was all for that, and pushed for the bypassing of most islands. Unfortunately, MacArthur had more sway, and thus we ended up involved in a number of islands that could have been ignored.
http://www.historyanimated.com/Tarawa.swf
Check out this amazing site, it will show you move by move with animations this battle and almost every other one in the history of warfare.
My wife’s grandfather commanded the Transport Fleet for Tarawa and he never got over having to watch the slaughter as the marines had to wade 1/2 mile to the beach with no cover.
The strategic value of Tarawa can be debated; the responsibility of the planners for their incompetent work resulting in the Marines being dropped 800 yards from the beach cannot.
One big benefit that came out of bloody Tarawa was that the U.S. Navy adjusted its ordnance and bombardment techniques based upon the Japanese coconut-log defenses that were discovered mostly intact after the battle.
There is a lot of criticism of the number of casualties taken at Tarawa but as the first real opposed amphibious assault in the war, if those casualties hadn't been at Tarawa they would have been taken somewhere else. The lessons learned at Tarawa without a doubt saved lives in future assaults.
To quote from this month's Naval History magazine:
"There had to be a Tarawa," stated both [Major General] Julian Smith and [Colonel] Merritt Edison to Congress after the battle, as they emphasized the operational, logistical and tactical lessons learned. Material shortfalls, faulty decisions, inexperience, and poor luck had led to a high cost in flesh and blood. Yet the doctrine of amphibious assault had proven valid. If the principals worked at Tarawa under the worst imaginable hydrographic and tactical conditions, they would work again at places like Normandy, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
My Mother’s cousin was in the Marines at Tarawa. As much as he loved to tell his war stories, he never said much about Tarawa. The only Tarawa story that I remember is that he slept under a rowboat on the beach.
No disrespect for those who are serving today so honorably and brilliantly, but overall, our generation is not fit to untie the bootlaces of the generation that fought WWII.
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