History Pgs.67-101
10/9/06
6:01 PM
Page 75
THE MARINES
The profound shock of the bloody amphibious assault at Tarawa provided a sobering preview of what was to come in the Pacific war, as well as the lessons that would be learned and heeded by the Marine Corps and Navy leading to ultimate victory. Some measure of the horror is depicted in Tarawa, 20 Nov 1943, by Col. Charles H. Waterhouse, USMCR (Ret.), 1975, acrylic on canvas.
Across the Reef at Tarawa Collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps
For its duration, the short, savage Battle of
Smith, in turn, picked Colonel Merritt “Red Mike” Edson, hero of Tulagi and Guadalcanal, for his chief of staff and – acting on a shrewdly perceptive hunch – kept the unknown, unproved Lieutenant Colonel David Shoup as his amphibious planner. Later, just before the battle, Smith would follow another hunch and give Shoup command of the assault regiment (promoting him to colonel in the process), wisely making his talented subordinate both the architect and executioner of the forcible seizure of Tarawa. Sobered by Betio’s [one of Tarawa atoll’s five main islands] elaborate fortifications, Julian Smith, Edson, and Shoup requested a preliminary seizure of an offshore island as an artillery fire support base, three days of combined naval, air, and artillery pounding, a diversionary landing, and full use of the 2d Marine Division’s three regimental combat teams. Nimitz and Spruance had to reject all of this. Speed of execution would prevail.
Tarawa was the bloodiest amphibious assault of the war. When it shuddered to a halt, seventy-six hours after the initial landing, nearly 6,000 men lay dead in an area smaller than the space occupied by the Pentagon and its parking lots. Eleven hundred were United States Marines. Few amphibious battles in the Pacific would levy such terrific demands on Marine leadership. Every man would be tested in this fiery crucible, but none more so than those at the front of the shock troops. Commandant Thomas Holcomb had selected Major General Julian Smith to command the 2d Marine Division. Some considered Smith too soft-spoken and inexperienced to lead a 20,000-man division into brutal combat. But Holcomb, who had seen war at its worst in France, knew Smith to be fearless under fire and a superb trainer of men.
75
