by Adrian Perkasa

Created on: August 27, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2008

Battle of Tarawa was the biggest amphibious operation held on Pacific theatre of World War II before 1944. It was for the second time US was on offensive side (the first offensive was battle of Guadalcanal), and the first time for US landing force to faced Japanese marine stronghold resistance. US won the battle, and Japan lost their strategic stronghold in Mid Pacific. But the amphibious operation itself was looked as a big mistake by some naval officers, and held without proper intelligence surveys and coordination, results in large casualties on both sides.

US naval force lost more than 1600 persons in this battle, while Japanese (and Korean workers) lost more than 4700 lives. Marine General Holland Smith asked after the battle "Was Tarawa worth it?" He answered "Is unqualified: no. From the very beginning the decision of the Joint Chiefs to seize Tarawa was a mistake and from their initial mistake grew the terrible drama of errors, errors of omission rather than commission, resulting in these needless casualties."

US naval office took deep analyze on their mistakes made in battle of Tarawa. They concluded that amphibious attack to Tarawa itself was a blunder, for they could have kept Tarawa Atoll neutralized from some islands occupied by US naval force surrounding it. US marine intelligence unit failed to detect the presence of Japan's elite marine unit, 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force on Tarawa Atoll. They also focused on some errors occurred during the operation:

1. They stopped naval fire attack earlier than they used to. Naval battleship and dive bombers attacked Japanese positions for one hour and a half, but then stopped fire to secure landing path for marine landing force. Most of large Japanese guns were destroyed by naval fire, but Japanese quickly manned their weapons when the naval fire stopped, makes them able to fight US marine landing force.
2. US marine intelligence miscalculated the neap tide on operation day. They expected normal neap tide rising (five feet), so larger landing crafts were able to reach Tarawa Atoll. But water surface was only three feet high on that day, makes many landing crafts sank or caught on reef.
3. There were only 125 amphibious tractors available on the operation, which was not enough to accommodate all marine landing troops. Most of marine troops landed by unsheltered and poor protected boats, makes them easy target by Japanese troops protecting beach.
4. Japanese marine troops built many special and superbly planned strongholds around the island. It was made by coconut tree log attached with steel wire and covered by stone and sand, makes it as good shelter during battleship bombardment.

US marine won the battle of Tarawa, but it also gave great lessons for their next amphibious operation. Later they pay off their lessons learned on Tarawa in the battle of Iwo Jima. Admiral Chester Nimitz later wrote a book titled "A Hundred Mistakes Made at Tarawa", to conclude all the lessons they learned from battle of Tarawa.

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