On this day in history in 1943, the Battle of Tarawa began with the landings of US Marines. Part of the Gilbert Islands campaign, this was one of the most heavily guarded islands with 4,500 troops of resistance against the US forces which extracted a kill count of nearly 1,700 US personnel including over 1,000 Marines and a little less than 700 Navy sailors. On the Japanese side, about 4,700 were killed including some Koreans who were captured by Imperial Japan and forced to help. On the first day, the Marines had taken the beachhead by noon and naval bombardment covered the marines the next 2 days as they pushed up the island and chased the Japanese to the other side. The battle lasted 3 days total until November 23rd but the island wasn’t officially cleared of Japanese until the 28th since the marines had to check every place above and below ground. This is still considered one of the Marine Corps’s toughest battles.
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