Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

10 Pacifica Military History
could be fed into the battle at will against the Marines struggling to
expand the tenuous perimeter on Red-3. No matter how many of the
enemy they killed, the Marines on Red-3 had to constantly face relatively
fresh reinforcements. It was all the Marines could do to hold their meager
gains.
Between 0700 and 0720 on D+3, U.S. Navy battleships standing
well off Betio fired their 14-and 16-inch guns at targets ranging from
the eastern end of the island to within five hundred yards of Crowe’s
lines on Red-3. Next, U.S. Navy carrier aircraft pummeled the area for
thirty minutes. Between 0830 and 0850, the battleships fired again. Then
there was another air strike. The battleships fired again from 0930 to
0950, and then there was yet another air strike. And then the battleships
fired one last time between 1030 to 1050. The goal was to destroy the
Japanese reserve manpower pool and resources in the eastern half of
Betio.
*
Early on D+2, Maj Jim Crowe issued general orders calling for an
all-out assault against the defensive complex on his left flank below the
Burns-Philp wharf. The complex, consisting primarily of the large
covered bombproof and two supporting pillboxes, had stymied F and K
companies for nearly forty-eight hours and had barred the way to the
wharf and the entire eastern end of Betio. After spending nearly all of
D+1 preparing the way, the two badly understrength rifle companies
and assorted mixed units under Maj Bill Chamberlin were ready to go.
The remnant of F Company drew the steel pillbox covering the
wharf and the northeast corner of the bombproof. G Company was in
support. A short distance to the south, K Company, supported by two
37mm antitank guns and its own 60mm mortars, was to hit the coconutlog
pillbox guarding the south and southeast portions of the bombproof.
Assault teams from the most successful unit would take on the bombproof
itself. There were no plans for further advances by any of the units on
Red-3; they would be issued when the bombproof fell. If the bombproof
fell.
Preparations for the assault began at about 0930, when most of
the machine guns along the front, particularly those supporting F