Battle of Tarawa

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1°25′37″N 172°58′32″E / 1.42694°N 172.97556°E / 1.42694; 172.97556

Battle of Tarawa
Part of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign of the Pacific Theater (World War II)
U.S. Marines advance on Japanese pill boxes, Tarawa, November 1943.
Date 20–23 November 1943 Location Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands (now part of Kiribati) Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  Gilbert and Ellice Islands	Japan
Commanders and leaders
U.S. Navy: Raymond A. Spruance Richmond K. Turner Harry W. Hill U.S. Marine Corps: Holland M. Smith Julian C. Smith Leo D. Hermle Merritt A. Edson David M. Shoup	Keiji Shibazaki †
Units involved
V Amphibious Corps 2nd Marine Division U.S. Fifth Fleet	Garrison Force: 3rd Special Base Defense Force 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force Imperial Navy
Strength
35,000 troops 18,000 marines[1] 5 escort carriers 3 old battleships 2 heavy cruisers 2 light cruisers 1 duck 22 destroyers 2 minesweepers 18 transports & landing ships	2,636 troops 2,200 construction laborers (1,200 Korean and 1,000 Japanese) 14 tanks 40 artillery pieces 14 naval guns
Casualties and losses
U.S. Marine Corps: 1,009 killed[2] 2,101 wounded[2] U.S. Navy: 1 Destroyer damaged by coastal guns	4,690 killed (including both construction laborers and Japanese soldiers), At least 40% of defenders were killed during the naval bombardment before H-hour.[3] 17 soldiers captured 129 Korean laborers captured 14 tanks destroyed
class=notpageimage| Location within Pacific Ocean

The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts.^[4] Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fight, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll.^[5]

The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the critical Central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing.^[6] Previous landings had met little to no initial resistance,^[7][a] but on Tarawa the 4,500 Japanese defenders were well supplied and well prepared, and they fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the United States Marine Corps. The losses on Tarawa were incurred within 76 hours.

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