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58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE book to read about Tarawa., May 8, 2001
Utilizing his prodigious research skills, Retired Colonel Joseph Alexander has written what has to be the best all around account of Tarawa. Incorporating new material gleaned from sources as diverse as Col. Shoup's personal papers, translation of the Japanese war history (Senshi Sosho) and recently declassified ULTRA radio intercepts, he presents a superbly crafted telling of the horror and victory at Tarawa. On the morning of 11/20/43 men of the 2nd Marine Division stormed ashore to face the Imperial Japanese Marines who defended Betio Island in the Tarawa atoll. These rikusentai were considered the best light infantry the Japanese had. In addition to the almost impregnable defensive positions prepared by the Japanese, the island was surrounded by a reef, which, due to tide and fortune, prevented the Higgins boats from crossing to the beaches. The decision to utilize LVTs (tracked amphibious vehicles, or more correctly, landing vehicle tracked) for the first time as troop carriers forever changed the history of amphibious assaults against strongly held enemy positions. Lumbering over the forbidding reef, LVTs carried their cargo of men and supplies where the Higgins boats could not go. This gamble represented a landmark in ship-to-shore movements and to this day amphibious assault vehicles are an essential element of any surface assault. Mistakes were made and men died because of them. The initial three-hour naval bombardment and bombing and strafing runs by carrier aircraft were far too little. Gaps between the naval and air force shelling allowed the enemy to move reinforcements to the beaches from the southern and eastern areas of the island. Following the bombardments many defensive positions and large guns remained fully functional and they blasted into the oncoming LVTs and the Higgins boats at the reef's edge. Men of later waves were forced to wade ashore as LVTs became destroyed or were unavailable. Hundreds of men died in that surf, wading ashore. One thousand Marines died on each of three days of battle before the island fell. It's the attention to detail that separates Alexander's work from other, well written histories of Tarawa. From the planning stages, to his telling of the build up of Japanese troops, to the inclusion of brief personal histories of the key personnel, to the epilogue summarizing the lessons learned and the errors made, this is an exceptional book well worth reading. To the serious student, it is the book on Tarawa that must be read.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Issue in Doubt, July 10, 2000
Just before the fall of Wake, the Marines defending that island radioed the message, "Issue in doubt." Just after the first waves of Marines hit the beaches at Tarawa and waded into the most hellish opposition imaginable, the landing party sent out the message "Issue in doubt." No Marine could mistake the import of that doleful sentence. On the brink of being thrown back into the sea, they held on, and then they advanced. Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki, the defender of Tarawa, had told his troops that it would take a million men a thousand years to capture the island. It took the Marines three days, but victory came at a terrible cost. The carnage was so horrific that when news of the cost of victory got back to the United States, enlistments in the Marine Corps plummeted. As Col. Alexander takes the reader through those three hellish days, you cannot help but be awed by the suffering the Marines endured, and by the courage they displayed. It makes one wonder how the men could perform at all, much less perform as well as they did. A gripping story of epic heroism in the face of near insurmountable odds--and it's true.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat erudite but gripping nevertheless..., September 3, 2004
While the war in continental Europe takes the lion's share in military bibliography the one that raged in the Pacific was certainly as ruthless and gripping. That happens a rather unknown fact especially to Europeans, and this book does a tremendous job bringing to the surface the horrors that took place in one of the bloodiest and most strategic battles in the Pacific theater, that of the island of Tarawa. Heavily fortified by the Japanese and invaded by a massive marine force the island was bound to become a huge burial ground as over 6000 soldiers from both sides died within a mere 3 days. Of these, an incredible 99.7% of the Japanese force were casualties (only about 20 survived and were taken prisoners) while the losses on the American side were stunningly big as well. That of course does not include the numerous injured soldiers that left parts of their bodies on Tarawa. Aside the heavy Japanese fortification, the island presented another formidable problem to the invading force, that of the coral reef that surrounded it. Armored amphibious vehicles were used to surpass that obstacle but the results were less than great as these became target practice for the Japanese machine-gunners ashore. It only got more grim every time a hatch-door opened and marines rushed out to open water having to go an excruciatingly long 200-400 yards till they reached land while under fire from the defenders. In the end, and as several accounts describe, the waters around the island were filled with 100s of floating face-down corpses from the fallen. The Americans tried to initially bomb the "rikusentai" (Japanese marine commandos) out of their positions prior to the assault but to little avail, and the battle of Tarawa that ensued became a hand to hand combat as well as a bullet festival from surreally close ranges. As the Japanese defenders were not going to give in until death, the massacre was but a certainty. The author (a retired marine himself), is at sometimes too scholarly, aiming to the specialised military reader as well as the non-military, but overall he does an overwhelmingly good job in bringing forth the bleak details and the planning of the attack. His description includes all the frantic "beyond the battle" situations (the problems the commanders faced aboard the ships or directly in battle, and these were many). His best comes when he deals with the battle itself where he literally puts you there in a narrow space with death looming everywhere. Most of the core of the book is yet another reminder of what war really is and "Utmost savagery" is definitely a must-read for studiers of WWII history. If you belong to that group, and you've mostly focused your reading in the war in Europe this is a book that will easily shift your attention from that front and remind you in its fullest scale why it was actually a world war. Gripping, harrowing account of one of the most merciless battles in contemporary history.
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