One Square Mile of Hell: The Battle for Tarawa
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN: 0451221389
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In the Tarawa atoll lies the tiny islet of Betio. In November of 1943, the men of the 2nd Marine Division watched as bombardments destroyed the island's Japanese defenses. But when the Marines landed, the Japanese poured out of their protective bunkers and began one of the most brutal encounters of the war.
Drawn from sources such as participants' letters and diaries and interviews with survivors, One Square Mile of Hell is the riveting true account of a battle between two determined foes, neither of whom would ever look at each other in the same way again.
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piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. http://us.penguingroup.com To my brother, Tom, whose encouragement and praise make me smile with the realization that my big brother is proud PREFACE I have long been familiar with the story of Tarawa. One of the first pieces I wrote, a magazine article more than twenty years ago, dealt with the subject, and the battle has remained with me ever since. The frightening walk toward shore, so reminiscent of
Zurlinden, Pete. “ ‘Scout-Sniper’ Outfit Wrote Heroic Chapter at Tarawa.” Racine Journal Times Sunday Bulletin, December 19, 1943. The following articles came from the Marine Corps Association’s archives Web site, pqasb.pqarchiver.com/mca-marines/doc, containing a library of articles from Leatherneck and from Marine Corps Gazette. Anonymous. “Combat Chaplain.” Leatherneck, November 1980, pp. 1-6. Bartlett, Tom. “New Zealand Pilgrimage.” Leatherneck, August 1978, pp. 1-10. Johnson, J. E. “My
were so busy we didn’t notice the Jap until one of the wounded Marines fired a shot into a corner,” Whitehead told a correspondent. “It’s a wonder we didn’t ruin the lad we were working on, we were so startled by the rifle report.”63 A further search unearthed one more Japanese soldier, whom a Marine clubbed to death with his rifle butt. Marines who had been ripped apart by bullets and mangled by mortar shells patiently waited in shell holes outside the bunkers while Bowen and other corpsmen
“They also gave their lives for one hundred and thirty million other Americans who realize it, I fear, only dimly.”1 Keith Wheeler, a reporter for the Chicago Daily Times, thought that morning that the battle had turned. On November 22, D+2, he wrote from Betio, “It looks as though the Marines are winning on this blood-drenched, bomb-hammered, stinking little abattoir of coral sand.”2 In these pre-CNN and pre-Fox News times, citizens in the United States would not read this and other comments
opposition removed, the Marines could then pour gasoline and throw hand grenades down the air vents to force the Japanese into the open, where the Marines could mow them down. Crowe left the attack’s execution to Chamberlin. The college professor faced one of the battle’s toughest challenges, as the Marines would have to scale the slopes under enemy fire, wrest the top from machine gunners, then kill the shelter’s occupants. Staff Sergeant Hatch and Private Kelliher were about to capture one of