The Pacific War in Color episode 3: Under the command of Admiral Nimitz in 1943, America advances towards Japan, engaging in a new series of island-hopping invasions through the Central Pacific.
But a ferocious and inauspicious start at the Tarawa atoll forces war strategists to redesign their plan from top to bottom, sparking new innovations and breaking new barriers. With color combat footage and accounts from those who experienced the fight firsthand, this is an intimate look at some of the costliest and most critical battles of World War II.
The Pacific War in Color episode 3
The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was fought on 20–23 November 1943. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll.
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 had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings met little or no initial resistance, 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. U.S. Divisions suffered similar casualties in previous campaigns, such as over the six months of the Guadalcanal Campaign, but the losses on Tarawa were incurred within 76 hours.
In order to set up forward air bases capable of supporting operations across the mid-Pacific, to the Philippines, and into Japan, the U.S. planned to take the Mariana Islands. The Marianas were heavily defended. Naval doctrine of the time held that in order for attacks to succeed, land-based aircraft would be required to weaken the defenses and protect the invasion forces. The nearest islands capable of supporting such an effort were the Marshall Islands.