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Tarawa Atoll

Betio Island is at lower left

On 10 November 1943, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Betio, located at the southwest corner of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands chain in the Central Pacific. This invasion, known as Operation Galvanic, was a phase of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

The landings on Betio were the Americans' third amphibious operation of the Pacific War, after Guadalcanal Island and Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island, but the first in which the Japanese vigorously resisted the landings on the beaches, pinning the Marines down with machine-gun and mortar fire. Worse, American planners at Pearl Harbor had grievously misjudged the timing of high tide at Betio, leaving the landing craft stranded on the shallow coral reefs where the Marines were slaughtered.

The island was declared secure after three days. Given the small size of Betio (0.59 sq. mi.), planners had expected it to take one.

Command structure

Naval commanders for Operation Galvanic

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz

Vice Adm. Raymond A. Spruance

Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner

Ground force commanders

Maj. Gen. Holland M. Smith, USMC

Maj. Gen. Julian C. Smith, USMC

Maj. Gen. Ralph C. Smith, USA

Naval

The roles of Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) and Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC), were both exercised by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Since the Gilberts and Marshalls lie in the Central Pacific, their capture was the responsibility of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, led by Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance from aboard his flagship, heavy cruiser Indianapolis.

The ships and troops of Operations Galvanic (landings on Tarawa Atoll) and Kourbash (landings on Makin Atoll) were under direct operational command of Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner aboard old battleship Pennsylvania.

Ground troops

V Amphibious Corps
Major General Holland M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith^[a]

Tarawa: 2nd Marine Division (Major General Julian C. Smith)

Makin: 27th Infantry Division (Army) (Major General Ralph C. Smith)

Both Admiral Turner and General Holland Smith sailed with the Northern Attack Force even though it was obvious that Tarawa would be the scene of the main ground action. If the Japanese mounted a counterattack, it was most likely to come from the Marshalls since the closest Japanese bases to the Gilberts were located there. Nimitz and Spruance wanted the two highest-ranking officers to sail with the forces that would be the first to encounter any such enemy response. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Japanese had stripped almost all their naval and air assets from the Marshalls in an attempt to resist the Allied effort in the Central Solomons. Thus, no counterattack materialized.

American

2nd Marine Division command at Tarawa

Maj. Gen. Julian C. Smith

Leo D. Hermle as a major general

Ground forces – Tarawa

2nd Marine Division
Major General Julian C. Smith

Asst. Div. Cmdr.: Brig. Gen. Leo D. Hermle

Chief of Staff: Col. Merritt A. Edson

Personnel officer (G-1): Lt. Col. C.P. van Ness

Intelligence officer (G-2): Lt. Col. Thomas J. Colley

Operations officer (G-3): Lt. Col. James P. Riseley

Logistics officer (G-4): Lt. Col Jesse S. Cook

Eastern landing area:

8th Marine Regiment

Colonel Elmer E. Hall

Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Paul D. Sherman

First Wave (Red Beach 3): 2nd Battalion (Maj. Henry P. Crowe)

Second Wave (Red Beach 3): 3rd Battalion (Maj. Robert H. Ruud)

Third Wave (Red Beach 2): 1st Battalion (Maj. Lawrence C. Hays Jr.)

Central landing area:

2nd Marine Regiment

Colonel David M. Shoup^[b]

Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Dixon Goen

First Wave (Red Beach 1): 3rd Battalion (Maj. John F. Schoettel)

First Wave (Red Beach 2): 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Herbert R. Amey, Jr. (KIA 20 Nov), then Lt. Col. Walter I. Jordan)

Second Wave (Red Beach 2): 1st Battalion (Major Wood B. Kyle)

Western landing area:

6th Marine Regiment

Colonel Maurice G. Holmes

Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Russell Lloyd

Third Wave (Green Beach): 1st Battalion (Maj. William K. Jones)

21–24 Nov (Outer Islands of Tarawa): 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Raymond L. Murray)

Fourth Wave (Green Beach): 3rd Battalion (Lt. Col. Kenneth F. McLeod)

10th Marine Regiment (Artillery)

Colonel Thomas E. Bourke

Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Ralph E. Forsyth

1st Battalion (Lt. Col. Presley M. Rixey)

2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. George R. E. Shell)

3rd Battalion (Lt. Col. Manly L. Curry)

4th Battalion (Lt. Col. Kenneth A. Jorgensen)

5th Battalion (Maj. Howard V. Hiett)

18th Marine Regiment (Engineer)

Colonel Cyril W. Martyr

Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Ewart S. Laue

1st Battalion (Engineers) (Maj. George L.H. Cooper)

2nd Battalion (Pioneers) (Lt. Col. Chester J. Salazar)

3rd Battalion (Seabees) (Cmdr. Lawrence E. Tull, USN)

Other units

2nd Defense Battalion^[c]

2nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion (Maj. Henry C. Drewes (KIA 20 Nov))

2nd Tank Battalion (Lt. Col. Alexander B. Swenceski)

Ground forces – Makin

27th Infantry Division (Army)

Major General Ralph C. Smith

165th Regimental Combat Team

3rd Battalion / 105th Infantry Regiment ("Appleknockers")

Japanese

Gilbert Islands defense forces
Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki (KIA 20 Nov)
Approx. 5,000 total men under arms

3rd Special Base Force^[d]

7th Sasebo SNLF

111th Construction Unit

4th Fleet Construction Dept. (detachment)

Sources

Clark, George B. (2006). The Six Marine Divisions in the Pacific: Every Campaign of World War II. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co. ISBN 978-0-7864-2769-7.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1951). Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls: June 1942 April 1944. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. VII. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-31658-307-7.

Notes

^ Generated so much ill-will between the services that he was eventually reassigned stateside.
^ Also commander of landed troops; awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his extraordinary leadership during the chaos of the initial assault.
^ Pvt. Edward D. Wood, later a producer of low-budget movies such as Plan 9 from Outer Space, served in this unit on Betio.
^ Formerly 6th Yokosuka SNLF