Tarawa and the Marshalls: The US Marines in World War II a Pictorial Tribute (U.S. Marines in World War II) - Hardcover

Eric Hammell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0760333297 ISBN 13: 9780760333297

Publisher: Zenith Press, 2009

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

From the Back Cover:

On November 20, 1943, the 2d Marine Division hit the beach on tiny Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, expecting that its defenses had been “pounded into coral dust” by naval and air bombardment. They found instead that the Japanese had survived and held largely intact defenses. Three days of intense fighting secured the island at the cost of one thousand dead Marines and more than two thousand wounded.

By early 1944 the Americans’ westward drive across the Pacific required airfields in the Marshall Islands at Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls. In late January, the 4th Marine Division and U.S. Army troops wrenched control of Kwajalein Atoll in three days of fighting. Then, beginning on February 18, the 22d Marine Regiment landed on three islands in Eniwetok Atoll. The newly rebuilt airfields would support future operations in the Mariana Islands as the Marines continued their island-hopping campaign to victory in the Pacific.

Military historian Eric Hammel has delved deeply into the government photo archives and discovered a treasure trove of rare, many never-before-published combat photos taken during these campaigns, unearthing hundreds of images. More than 200 photos and captions, alongside Hammel’s concise narrative, serve as both historical record and lasting tribute to the Marines who fought their way across the South Pacific.

Synopsis:

The US Marines battle for Tarawa Atoll and the Marshall Islands included some of the fiercest, most decisive combat and battles in the Pacific Theatre - critical engagements that this book brings vividly to life, using photographs shot by soldiers at the time. This historic drama unfolds using these hundreds of rare photographs, alongside a history documenting the 2nd Marine Division's amphibious assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa atoll on November 20, 1943, the landing of the 22nd Marines on the Marshalls on February 18, and the four days of intense fighting that bought the atoll under Allied control in under four days. Not for nothing was this known as 'Bloody Tarawa', and these unique, never-before-seen photographs capture this fiercely desperate combat in uncompromising, stark images.

About this edition

• Publisher: Zenith Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0760333297
• ISBN 13: 9780760333297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160