![]() ![]() As the survivors stumbled breathlessly onto shore their boots splashed in water that had turned bright red with blood. Japanese steel killed over 300 Marines in those long minutes as they struggled to the shore. Bullets ripped through their ranks, sending flesh and blood flying as screams pierced the air. And the Marines, almost wholly submerged and their hands full of equipment, could not defend themselves. There was nowhere to hide, as Japanese gunners raked the Marines at will. In one of the bravest scenes in the history of warfare, these Marines slogged through the deep water into sheets of machine-gun bullets. ![]() They jumped from their stranded landing crafts into chest-deep water holding their arms and ammunition above their heads. If they hesitated or turned back, their buddies ashore would be decimated.īut they didn't hesitate. The actions of these Marines trapped on the reef would determine the outcome of the battle for Tarawa. “It would be forty-four years before physicist Donald Olson would discover that D-Day at Tarawa occurred during one of only two days in 1943 when the moon's apogee coincided with a neap tide, resulting in a tidal range of only a few inches rather than several feet. ![]()
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