Most Interesting Pacific Battle

Operation Galvanic ( Tarawa/Betio ) It's here the Americans learned , the hard way, how to beat the Japanese.
Mike

They already had, at Guadalcanal :wink:
And before that at Milne Bay with the Australians.
With fairness to Mikky, there is a distinct difference between Guadalcanal. Milne Bay and Tarawa/Betio.

Guadalcanal is a 2,510-square mile (6,500-km²) - Island


Milne Bay - New Guinea is also part of an appreciable land mass and is part of a country.



Previous landings (eg. Guadalcanal) met little or no initial resistance. The Japanese landed more troops after the Marines had invaded.


Tarawa/Betio was the first offensive in the critical central Pacific region and is only 12 sq miles or 31 sq kms in total



It was also the first time in the war that the United States faced serious entrenched Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing.



The Japanese forces were well aware of the Gilberts' strategic location and had invested considerable time and effort fortifying the island. The 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force of 2,619 men under the command of Commander Takeo Sugai was an elite Japanese marine unit. This unit possessed 14 Type 95 light tanks led by Ensign Ohtani. In order to bolster the defenses, the 1,247 men of the 111th Pioneers (similar to American Seabees) along with the 970 men of the Fourth Fleet's construction battalion were brought in; approximately 1,200 of the men in these two groups were Korean forced laborers. A series of fourteen coastal defense guns, including some 8-inch guns bought from the British before the war, were located around the island and placed in concrete bunkers. A total of 500 pillboxes, "stockades" built from logs, and forty artillery pieces were scattered around the island. An airfield was cut into the bush along the high point of the island. Trenches connected all points of the island, allowing troops to move where needed under cover.




The entire atoll of Tarawa was not connected by roads and a Causeway as it is today. The photo below shows how all the little land masses are like a broken skeleton. You could walk between these little islands and the huge lagoon at low tide.

Click on this photo a couple of times to get the full benefit.

 

The stop and the start: Midway and Guadalcanal

 

I'm glad everyone is still debating, it makes my life complete!

 

I don't think any battle is ïnteresting", people (both sides) are getting killed
David

 

I don't think any battle is ïnteresting", people (both sides) are getting killed
David

I think most people knew what the lass meant by "interesting".

Cheers

Geoff

 

Why thank-you Geoff...

 

I don't think any battle is ïnteresting", people (both sides) are getting killed
David

I appreciate your sentiment David, as do most of us here. Nothing is good about a war except the end of it. It's the study of history that attracted me here (that and the problem of logging onto the ww2f when the servers were being changed in May of 2009). If you do not study history, you are doomed to repeat it. Not my quote actually, read it somewhere awhile back. Can't remember who made that statement originally. Obviously a smart fellow he was.

But on the other hand, why are you even here on this forum, if discussing subject matter involving the catastrophic suffering and deaths of millions of people in the worlds most devastating war is so deplorable to you? Remember, this a discussion forum to learn and study the war that shaped the world that we live in now. I didn't make that statement up either, must have been that same learned man who coined the statement mentioned in the previous paragraph.

 

Absolutely right.

It is impossible to be interested in History without being interested in the wars and battles that have helped to shape it.

It is the very reason for this forum after all!!

And that ludicrous statement from David [Beeza] is from somebody with a great interest in the Boer War - when please correct me if I am wrong many people were killed fighting there!!

 

great interest in the Boer War
That reminds me of a song that I have stuck in my head about Boer General. It's really catchy!

YouTube - De la Rey Song - with English subtitles

Op 'n berg in die nag
lê ons in die donker en wag
in die modder en bloed lê ek koud,
streepsak en reën kleef teen my

en my huis en my plaas tot kole verbrand sodat hulle ons kan vang,
maar daai vlamme en vuur brand nou diep, diep binne my.

De La Rey, De La Rey sal jy die Boere kom lei?
De La Rey, De La Rey
Generaal, generaal soos een man, sal ons om jou val.
Generaal De La Rey.

Oor die Kakies wat lag,
'n handjie van ons teen 'n hele groot mag
en die kranse lê hier teen ons rug,
hulle dink dis verby.

Maar die hart van 'n Boer lê dieper en wyer, hulle gaan dit nog sien.
Op 'n perd kom hy aan, die Leeu van die Wes Transvaal.

De La Rey, De La Rey sal jy die Boere kom lei?
De La Rey, De La Rey
Generaal, generaal soos een man, sal ons om jou val.
Generaal De La Rey.

Want my vrou en my kind lê in 'n kamp en vergaan,
en die Kakies se murg loop oor 'n nasie wat weer op sal staan.

De La Rey, De La Rey sal jy die Boere kom lei?
De La Rey, De La Rey
Generaal, generaal soos een man, sal ons om jou val.
Generaal De La Rey.

I cheated and got that off the internet somewhere...

 

All, I have written a series of essays on many of the lesser well known naval battles of the Pacific war listed above, if anyone is interested. I'm currently updating them all, but the one for the Battle of Kolombangara is the most complete.

 

All, I have written a series of essays on many of the lesser well known naval battles of the Pacific war listed above, if anyone is interested. I'm currently updating them all, but the one for the Battle of Kolombangara is the most complete.

Hi Mike,

I for one would be interested in reading them.


Cheers

Geoff

 

All, I have written a series of essays on many of the lesser well known naval battles of the Pacific war listed above, if anyone is interested. I'm currently updating them all, but the one for the Battle of Kolombangara is the most complete.

Mate, anything on the several engagements fought during the defense of the NEI?

 

This one covers the night action of 12/13 July 1943. More to come. hope you enjoy.


There is already another floating around the forum on the Battle of Tassafaronga, which is curently being revised and updated.

 

Hi all

Pearl Harbour , not that I am interested in researching it.
It brough America into the war and gave the allies a heap of troops and armaments and contributed to the demise of the axis powers

regards

Robert

 

I think Guadalcanal because the Americans didnt really know what to expect and hadnt come across the Japanese in a major offensive yet. That in itself makes it really interesting for me

 

Most interesting: Coral Sea.

Most thrilling: Midway.

Most important: Guadalcanal/Solomons battles (note plural)

The industrial prowess of the US would have won the greater Pacific War in the long haul, anyway. With or without Midway. That's not boasting (I am an RN fan, after all!), that's just a simple, overwhelming logistical fact.

Coral Sea is the most interesting to me, for reasons given by others, previously. Midway a close second.

The Guadalcanal and Solomons battles were a series of "acts" comprising a "play". That campaign was, in some ways, even more pivotal than the Battle of Midway. The war out there would have been fought both much harder and longer, had the US not prevailed that summer.

 

The Battle of Midway was more an aviation battle than a naval battle. the battle off Samar Island involved the closing of a superior Japanese force with understrength US units and various feints by the Japanese to draw off the main American battle fleet.

This and the night attack by a Japanese battlecruiser squadron near Leyte were parts of the same general action and more of a real naval engagement. It was the last real naval action of japan's naval fleet.

 

Coral Sea and Midway.

 

Midway , Coral Sea .
America played her cards very well , got that little bit of luck whilst for the IJN what could have gone wrong did go wrong.
The effort to repair damaged units paid off and surprised the Japanese.

 

Its got to be Midway the turning point in the pacific, the IJN codes had been partially broken and Nimitz played his hand well, the old IJN went down with their carriers whilst the USN continued to build their strength.

Guadalcanal has to be the second here the US Marines reinforced by the US Army fought the Japanese Army and Navy under brutal conditions, they did not know what to expect and they got it right although the Japanese tactics at times left a bit to be desired. You also had the naval battles off Savo and the slot apparantly one admiral actually crossed the T with his battleships but his deployment of gunnery radar systems meant the chance went begging.
In all it set the standard for the more bloddy battles and assualts that followed.