Eighty years ago, the Marines landed on Tarawa, the first of the heavily-opposed "storm landings" in the Pacific. It could have been a lot worse, absent the pulverizing of a lot of Betio island's defenses by direct fire from battleships. The Japanese commander was killed by sniper fire from a destroyer's 5" gun.
In a harbinger of the future storm landings, the Marines killed almost all of the defenders, who fought to the bitter end. They paid the butcher's bill for it, too.
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3 comments:
It is always. Important to remember these things. We as country,as a people sacrificed to defeat fascism. My father want over Omaha Beach. I still feel the effects of the reverberating trauma, however the would is better for it. Thanks to those who serve. Let us be brave for what fight against the dark forces we may get face
Had an uncle that went ashore there. Second day there he got hit with machine gun fire. He survived but never talked about his time in the Marines. Fast forward 50 years or so, and an archeology team was the n the jungle and came across a canteen with a partially rotten canvas cover. On the cover they could make out ‘Odorowski, J’. They contacted his daughters and returned their father’s canteen.
Dale
The last of my WW11 veteran relatives passed away this spring and the one thing in common to all of them was I never found out they were even wounded until they passed and went on with their Purple Heart.
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