Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa

by Joseph H. Alexander

Book Overview

"The first complete and definitive account of the Battle of Tarawa." --Maj. Gen. Mike Ryan, USMC (Ret.) Navy Cross recipient Green Beach, Tarawa On November 20, l943, in the first trial by fire of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557500312
• ISBN13: 9781557500311
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A Detailed Tactical Analysis

Col. Joseph Alexander does a great job in analyzing the battle in tremendous detail. The strategic developments leading to the battle are presented in sufficient detail to get a feeling for why the battle occurred. Both the American and Japanese sides are presented (the Japanese record, of course, being mostly lost) which combine to make the story even more interesting. While some personal stories are told, the focus is on the tactical events of the battle. There are sufficient maps to refer to during the course of the story telling. The obligatory photos are also present. **Buy this book: if you are interested in the human drama of the bloody island campaigns; would like to study the tactical details of the battle. ***Don't buy this book: if you are interested in more of the strategic picture; don't want too much detail of the battle; are bored by the drama of the island campaigns.

THE book to read about Tarawa.

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.

Masterful Account of an Epic Battle

Col. Alexander has produced a comprehensive and thorough account, and a brilliant analysis, of one of the toughest battles of the Pacific War. In this inaugural amphibious assault against a strongly fortified beach, the Marines wrote one of the most heroic and traumatic chapters in the history of their corps. They paid a tragic price for the valuable lessons learned there, which were effectively applied in subsequent assaults. As one who went ashore on D+5, and spent the next two weeks cleaning up the battlefield and burying the dead, I stand in awe and wonder at the valor, courage, and sheer grit of the officers and men of the 2nd Marine Division, who had to go up and over the fortified wall fronting the landing beaches. A plaque at the main cemetery on Betio read: "So there let them rest, on their sunswept atoll, The wind for their watcher the waves for their shroud, Where palm and pandanus shall whisper forever A requiem fitting for heroes so proud." Alexander captures the essence of their awful struggle, heroic deeds, and costly victory.

Issue in Doubt

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.

A COMPREHENSIVE INVASION ACCOUNT

This is one of those books that rates five stars for comprehensiveness of military history and battle analysis; it's probably a three for light readers. Overall, the account is very interesting and clearly written, with much detail about the scenario as well as the Marine and Navy personnel involved. The author brings the reader to the reef and the lagoon where the landing Marines are being shot one after another in a seemingly fruitless attempt to take this tiny little island. The account is well illustrated with easy to read maps. This is important because the island being invaded, Betio, is only one island in the Tarawa lagoon. If the reader is looking for a professional, well-researched account of this invasion, this is probably the one.