Battle Of Tarawa Essay
The Battle of Tarawa in 1943 marked the first time that the US faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Over the course of four days, the 2nd Marine Division lost over 3,000 men to the heavily defended coastlines of Tarawa Atoll. Even though the Battle resulted in an American victory, it caused Naval and Marine Corps leaders to reevaluate traditional amphibious assault doctrine. While the principles of simplicity and offensive were followed, the principles of surprise and maneuver were not, which resulted in the mass casualties and lessons learned at Tarawa. In 1943, the United States began its main offensive against the Japanese. Guadalcanal had been taken from Japan with relatively few losses, and Admiral Nimitz was …show more content…
Due to a neap tide, the water level had fallen below four feet, which was the draft of a Higgins boat. As a result, the incoming Marines became stuck on the reef, forcing them to wade 500 to 1,000 ashore under heavy Japanese fire. With the Higgins boats stuck on the reef, only the Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) “Alligators”, made it ashore. Within ten minutes, the LVT’s had landed over 1,500 Marines, who were now facing very heavy fire from the Japanese defenders. Over the course of the day, the Marines worked toward clearing the first line of Japanese defenses, destroying bunkers and communication lines all while facing fire from machine guns and enemy snipers. With the beachhead secure, the US managed to land some more Marines and 14 M4-A2 Sherman medium tanks. That night, the Japanese continued firing on the American positions, but did not launch a counterattack. However, many Japanese did sneak through the Marine’s lines and hid in the wrecked LVT’s, waiting in ambush for the next day. Altogether, 5,000 Marines had landed in the first day, 1,500 of which were casualties. The second day, the United States continued its assault of Tarawa Atoll. Facing stiff resistance from machine gun nests and pillboxes, the Marines called in airstrikes and naval bombardment, causing the Japanese to slowly lose ground. With supporting fire, the Marines were able to push forward with relatively few losses. By the end of the first day,
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D Day Research Paper
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657 Words | 3 PagesThe Marines didn 't know that they will be going up against Japanese soldiers that hid in small bunkers. When the marines were at Iwo Jima, many deaths occurred. Marines had trouble figuring out where enemy fire was being shot from. Eventually, marines figured out that out about the bunkers and took out every enemy that was in them till it was over. The battle of Iwo Jima lasted for one month.
Iwo Jima Essay
1309 Words | 6 PagesAfter the bombing, the United State troops approached the island. At their first sight, the troops thought that they had wiped out all of the Japanese troops. This is because the Japanese had dug a tremendous amount of underground tunnels and hideouts (Chen). This is why the United States had a very limited amount of success with the bombing. The Japanese Imperial Navy was instructed to stay in their positions until all of the beaches around Iwo Jima were full.
Iwo Jima Research Papers
1437 Words | 6 PagesThis was the start of the long invasion of Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the Japanese army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The battle, known to the USMC as "Operation Detachment", started on February 19, 1945 and lasted until March 26, 1945 when the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. Japan knew that the importance of defending Iwo Jima as its loss would facilitate American air raids against Japanese Home Islands. However Imperial Japanese Navy had already lost almost all of its power and could not prevent U.S. from landing.
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823 Words | 4 Pages“Letters from Iwo Jima” is considered a historically accurate representation of the conflict in Iwo Jima. However, it misrepresents some facts that could affect our understanding on The Battle of Iwo Jima. Firstly, one aspect of The Battle of Iwo Jima that the film accurately depicted was Kuribayashi’s strategy. The Japanese defence of Jima would have been defence-in-depth, a military tactic that included
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