Posted on 11/23/2013 5:05:38 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/nov1943/f23nov43.htm
Marines conquer the Tarawa Atoll
Tuesday, November 23, 1943 www.onwar.com
US Marines on Tawara [photo at link]
In the Gilbert Islands... On Tarawa Atoll, the battle ends by noon. The US marines have suffered 1000 killed and 2000 wounded. The Japanese garrison of 4800 troops has been annihilated. A total of 17 wound Japanese troops and 129 Korean laborers are the only survivors. On Makin Atoll, the battle is also completed. American infantry have suffered about 200 dead and wounded. The Japanese have lost about 600 killed, wounded or captured. Meanwhile, the escort carrier Liscomb Bay is sunk offshore by a Japanese resulting in the loss of 600 sailors.
In Germany... The prototype of the Me262 jet airplane is demonstrated to Hitler. He orders it to be made capable of carrying bombs. This controversial decision delays the development and production of the aircraft.
In the Mediterranean... German forces land on the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea and disarm 2500 troops left on the island.
In Egypt... The Cairo Conference continues. Roosevelt, Churchill and Chaing Kai-shek meet.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/23.htm
November 23rd, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: HMC ML 114 commissioned.
Frigate HMS Dakins commissioned.
Submarine HNLMS Zwaardvis commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: Seven RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb Texel Island.
FRANCE: Paris: The resistance have now killed 25 miliciens and wounded 27 more. The attacks for the most part occur in the open, in places like restaurants or in the victims’ houses.
Eighty three USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders bomb Berck-sur-Mer and Longuenesse Airfields at Saint-Omer.
GERMANY: Insterburg, East Prussia: Hitler watches a demonstration flight of the ME-262 prototype jet airplane. He predicts it will be an ideal light bomber. This aircraft was first flown in July and will take until June of 1944 until it becomes operational.
Berlin: Tonight RAF bombers return to the city, killing 1,315 people in a raid in which the Germans tried to confuse the RAF by using a woman’s voice to direct their fighters; the RAF responded by using a woman’s voice to direct the bombers.
383 aircraft, 365 Lancasters, ten Halifaxes and eight Mosquitos, to continue the attack on Berlin; 322 bomb the target. The bombing force uses the same direct route as had been employed yesterday. The German controllers make an early identification of Berlin as the probable target; their single-engined fighters are gathered over the city before the arrival of the bombers and other fighters arrive a few minutes later. Fake instructions broadcast from England cause much annoyance to the German who is giving the “running commentary;” the Germans start using a female commentator but this is promptly countered by a female voice from England ordering the German pilots to land because of fog at their bases. “Spoof” fighter flares dropped by Mosquitos north of the bomber stream also cause some diversion of German effort. Bomber crews notice that flak over the target is unusually restrained, with the German fighters obviously being given priority. Twenty aircraft, all Lancasters, are lost, 5.2 per cent of the bomber force. The target is again cloud-covered and the Pathfinders carry out skymarking, but many of the Main Force crews aim their bombs through the cloud at the glow of 11 major fires still burning from yesterday. Much further destruction is caused in Berlin. In other raids, sour Oboe Mosquitos attack Cologne while one each attack the Knapsack power-station near Cologne and the city of Emden without loss.
U-300, U-1171 launched.
ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army’s II Corps area, the 1st Special Service Force, a highly trained group of Canadians and Americans under Colonel Robert T. Frederick, is attached to the 36th Infantry Division.
Weather limits USAAF Twelfth Air Force operations to fighter patrols of the battle area.
BURMA: In northern Burma, the Japanese overrun the command post of the 112th Regiment, Chinese 38th Infantry Division.
CHINA: The USAAF”> USAAF Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 13 B-25 Mitchells, 24 P-40s, and seven P-51 Mustangs attack the Yoyang railroad yards and warehouse area. Eight other P-40s, on armed reconnaissance over the Hanshow area, strafe barges, boats, supplies, and cavalry forces.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, the Japanese counterattack on the Australian 24th Brigade, 9th Division, is stopped. The 26th Brigade continues advancing on Sattelberg, with bulldozers clearing the way for tanks.
In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and A-20 Havocs hit villages around Finschhafen.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack a convoy near Halmahera Island in the Moluccas Islands and sink one vessel.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, the 3d Marine Division, still strongly opposed in the Piva forks area, begins regrouping. The 1st Marine Parachute Battalion arrives.
USN Task Force 39, consisting of four light cruisers and eight destroyers, bombards the Buka Island-Bonis area of northern Bougainville.
On Bougainville Island, Chabai Airfield is attacked by 23 B-25 Mitchells, six RNZAF Venturas, and 24 USN F4U Corsairs; two B-24 Liberators bomb the same targets later in the day. Nineteen B-24 Liberators hit Bonis airfield and Buka airfield on Buka Island while four B-25 Mitchells on a shipping sweep bomb and strafe villages along the coast between Mabiri and Luluai.
GILBERT and ELLICE ISLANDS,TARAWA: With this US troops have seized control of the Gilbert Islands, in the central Pacific, after three days of fighting and appalling casualties on both sides.
The fighting was heaviest at the island air base of Betio, on Tarawa, where 1,009 US Marines died and 2,101 were wounded. Of Betio’s 4,836-strong Japanese and Korean garrison only 146 survived (all but 17 of them Korean labourers), with many of the dead having committed seppuku. Among the dead is Tarawa’s last Japanese commander, Rear-Admiral Keiji Shibasaki. He was responsible for fortifying Betio, which measures only 3,800 yards long by 300 yards wide, with scores of concrete bunkers, 20 coastal defence guns and 25 artillery pieces. Before the attack he had exhorted his men to “make sure than a million men in a hundred years cannot take it”.
The turning point came on day two after Major-General Julian Smith managed to get two more 8th Marines battalions ashore to rout a counter-attack and reinforce the costly attacks on Tarawa’s 500 beach-head concrete and coconut-log pillboxes.
The US has also taken Japan’s two other Gilbert Island bases. On Makin only one of the 800-strong Japanese garrison survived; US losses were 66 dead. At Apamama the garrison of 22 committed suicide rather than surrender.
The US escort carrier Liscombe Bay is sunk supporting these operations in the Gilberts with an additional loss of 600 sailors.
From Glen Boren’s diary:
23 November 1943. We moved out to about 200 miles to refuel. Later, the USS KIDD came along side for gedunk and turkey for the 25th. Next, the USS CHANCHEY came along side for the same and to give us mail and put a pilot on board that they had picked up the day before after he had made a bad landing and gone over the side.
In Makin Atoll, organized resistance on Butaritari Island ends at 1030 hours when advance elements of 3d Battalion, 165th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, reach the tip of the island. Re-embarkation of the assault forces begins. U.S. casualties are 66 killed and 152 wounded; the Japanese lose 395 men.
In Tarawa Atoll, the 3d Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment, attacking through the 1st Battalion, reaches the end of Betio Island shortly after 1300 hours, and Major General Julian C. Smith, Commanding General 2d Marine Division, reports the end of organized resistance on Betio at 1330 hours. The 8th Marine Regiment, less the 1st Battalion, moves to Bairiki Island. The 2d Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, moves from Bairiki to Betio and is given the task of securing the rest of islands in Tarawa Atoll. The 3d Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, moves to the village of Eita Island, where the 3d Platoon of Company D, 2d Tank Battalion, is attached to it. U.S. casualties are 961 killed, 2,296 wounded and 27 missing; of the original 4,836 Japanese on the island, all but 17 wounded POWs and 129 Korean laborers are killed.
USN F6F-3 Hellcat fighter pilots of Fighting Squadron Sixteen (VF-16) in the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) shoot down 17 Japanese “Zeke” fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) near Makin Atoll at about 1005 hours.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Six USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators based in the Ellice Islands bomb Emidj and Jabor Islands, Jaluit Atoll.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Capelin sunk by the Japanese off Kaoe Bay, Halmahera.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Merrittonia (ex-HMCS Pointe Claire) laid down Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
Tug HMCS Glenada commissioned and assigned to Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
Trawler HMS Ironbound arrived Halifax as escort for Quebec-Sydney, Nova Scotia. convoys.
Beach Commando, the largest Commando Operation of WWII was Neptune, the naval portion of Operation Overlord. Beach Commando groups (F, J, L, P, Q, R, S, T, W.) were formed and trained, ‘W’ was mostly Canadians. The Commando’s went in the first waves in order to judge whether landing craft of subsequent waves could land at the same point or had to go elsewhere.
Heavy casualties at Normandy, were incurred.
U.S.A.: Northern New Hampshire is in the grip of a record snowstorm which leaves a total of 55 inches (140 centimeters) at Berlin, and 56 inches (142 centimeters) at Randolph. The 56 inch (142 centimeter) total at Randolph establishes a 24 hour snowfall record for the state. In Maine, Middle Dam receives a record 35 inches (89 centimeters) of snow in 24 hours.
Escort carrier USS Sitkoh Bay laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS Lloyd and De Long launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-516 sank SS Elizabeth Kellogg.
U-648 sunk NE of the Azores, in position 42.40N, 20.37W, by depth charges from frigates HMS Bazely, Blackwood, and Drury. 50 dead (all hands lost).
Excellent speaker on the Med campaign and problems of coalition leadership.
http://ww2conference.com/home/
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Tarawa, but I haven’t seen or heard a word about it in the media. They’re all celebrating the anniversary of something else.
I notified some elements of the media but haven’t heard anything back. Well, my BIL likes my facebook post on the subject. We have it covered here, though.
50 is one of those magic numbers. Like 75, 100, or as we saw recently, 150. Since there is a lot of nostalgia that still exists around the JFK presidency created by the remaining baby boomers, and there still is the ever growing conspiracy theories surrounding his death, it pushes it to the front of the page.
My Dad served on the attack transport, USS Arthur Middleton. His ship participated at the battle of Tarawa.
He never spoke to me about the battle itself - other than to say he was there.
After my Dad’s passing in 2006, I learned from a family member that shortly after the end of the war my Dad had confided in him how it was impossible to avoid the bodies of our dead floating in the shallow waters as helped guide the landing craft that brought in supplies & took out our wounded Marines from Tarawa back to the Middleton.
Aside from the Tarawa news, that article on the Spanish Republicans was interesting. They are going to have a long wait, as Franco will be in charge for another 32 years...
Threre was a very small (battalion sized) unit of Spanish Republicans on the Western Front in France. But I would never have rated them as an Allied government-in-exile, as Franco kept Falangist Spain out of the war.
He did allow some proxy fighting by Spanish troops. Remember the Blue Division that served on the Eastern front around Leningrad.
My wife’s grandfather was a Transport Commander at Tarawa. His flagship was the USS Heywood.
Well, Bomber Harris really didn't care where the bombs fell, so long as he was systematically destroying Berlin.
I see Drew Pearson just spilled the beans about the Patton slapping incident. The stuff is about to hit the fan.
I echo the sentiments about the Tarawa anniversary. A heavy price to pay for not much real estate. But, we learned a heck of a lot about amphibious operations on Central Pacific islands and would later correct many mistakes.
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