The Marines landing at Tarawa Island had high hopes for a quick and easy victory. It was November 20, 1943 and for several days before the planned attack Marines had witnessed special task forces pour ...

When we landed in Tarawa, a tiny atoll in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, after a 24-hour trip from Los Angeles, the plane windows were soaked with rain. I had been warned that the island would ...

Officers and personnel of the 2nd U.S. Marine Division who fell in the battle for Tarawa atoll, Gilbert Islands, in November 1943, are buried in this cemetery, shown here on March 20, 1944. Photo by: ...

LEVELED to shadeless desolation by bombs and bulldozers, the sweltering sand of Tarawa is hallowed ground. Many an embattled place has flared into brief, exclamatory prominence during six years of ...

Last week warships, transports and merchantmen in categories and quantities never seen before crept into Pearl Harbor, crept out again. The distant boom of practising naval guns reverberated through ...

Aboard one of the many troop transports plowing the long sea furrows to Tarawa, and later in the hell of Betio, was TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod. His story: Ship life was dull. The men of the and ...

Here’s What You Need To Remember: Just a few Shermans helped turn the tide of a disaster—but clearly the Tarawa landing had left much to be desired. Even the 75-millimeter guns still struggled to bust ...

The last time Leon Cooper saw the tiny Pacific atoll called Tarawa, its beach was littered with bodies. These days, the scene of one of the United States’ bloodiest World War II battles is littered ...