The Battle of Tarawa, or Operation Galvanic, was a battle that took place in the Gilbert Islands at the Tarawa Atoll (Louis Hayward, DVD). It took place when the United States began its Central Pacific Campaign against the Japanese. This was a battle that was commonly known that took place at the Pacific Ocean theater, a major war between the Allies and the Japanese. 18,000 US Marines were sent in total to the Tarawa Island and were expected to take it from the Japanese. The teamwork and strategy that was used during the bloody four days and three nights lead to the United States taking the island away from the Japanese.
The battle at the Tarawa island was the first American defense in the central Pacific region (Kennedy Hickman, Web) . It was also the first time that the United States faced the Japanese in such a bloody way. The Japanese were well-prepared and they did not want to give up. Despite their enthusiasm to keep fighting without giving up, they only had 4,500 Japanese troops in total. Dilemmas quickly turned into problems when the Marines tried to map out their attack on the island. However, that did not keep them from fighting.
Before the Marines could even get near the…show more content… The Marines must advance across the island. To do so, they must take out each dugout, bunker, and pillbox along the way -- which is a dirty and dangerous task. Anywhere at the island of Tarawa, the soldiers were subject to death at any moment. That is why it was considered difficult because the Japanese hid well throughout the island. In the beginning, the Marines were struggling to get across the island and had to deal with losses of their team members (Louis Hayward, DVD). Now, they were advanced in moving inland. It was a piece by piece war. The Marines used every weapon they had at hand to take out the Japanese intrenchments. By 16:00, the Marines that were pushing forward east made it halfway across the