Chapter 35 island of death

At dawn on November 23, when the newly added third battalion of the sixth marine regiment passed through the fierce battle last night, they found that there were piles of corpses on the battlefield. . The third battalion continued to advance, encountering only sporadic and unorganized resistance along the way, and after more than four hours, they reached the other end of Betio Island.At 1:12 p.m., Julian Smith, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, announced the end of organized Japanese resistance.In fact, the Japanese army has been wiped out. There were originally 3,600 Japanese soldiers and 1,200 Korean laborers on Betio Island. In the end, more than 100 Korean laborers were captured, but only 1 Japanese officer and 19 soldiers surrendered, and the rest either died in battle or committed suicide.The number of U.S. troops who landed on the island reached 18,300, with a total of more than 3,000 casualties, and more than 1,000 died in battle or after being wounded.

Just after the battle ended, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Knox announced that the Battle of Tarawa had caused heavy casualties to the Marine Corps, which was rare in the 168-year history of the Marine Corps. Three days later, Nimitz decided to visit Betio Island in person to learn about the situation there.At this time, the cleaning of the battlefield on the island was not over yet, and thirsty Japanese soldiers even came out of the rubble and carried out crazy suicide attacks. Therefore, Spruance persuaded Nimitz to postpone the trip. Nimitz did not heed this advice, and the airport was temporarily unable to land large planes, so he changed to a Marine Corps fighter jet to Betio Island.Betio Island has become an island of death. The burial team is stepping up efforts to bury the dead bodies on the island, but there are still thousands of corpses that have not been buried in time. The stench is disgusting and disgusting.When Nimitz made his way to the beachhead, he saw the bodies of Marines still submerged in the water among the battered land crawlers.Nimitz was deeply shocked: "This is the first time I smell death."

The marines who survived this severe test were obviously severely hit mentally.Their faces were haggard and dull, and many young soldiers looked older than their parents.On their faces, there was no joy and smiles due to winning, only the kind of luck of escaping the pursuit of death.Nimitz said emotionally to the soldiers: "Dear children, I am proud of you. You have declared to the world with your actions that the Americans are invincible!" For Nimitz, after seizing Tarawa Island, Makin Atoll and other islands, the task of recovering the Gilbert Islands has been completed, and the "recovery operation" can be successfully concluded, but the high price paid by the US military is still in his heart cast a shadow.At the end of the inspection, Nimitz said to Spruance full of thoughts: "The battle caused such a huge loss, I am afraid that American citizens will not forgive us."

The bloody battle on Tarawa Island indeed caused an uproar in American public opinion circles. The families of the dead even wrote directly to Nimitz to express their grief and indignation.A mother who lost her son wrote: "You killed my son on Tarawa Island." Knowing that Nimitz was under tremendous pressure, President Roosevelt immediately called Admiral Ginger: "Tell Nimitz to let go of the fight, and let me handle domestic affairs." Under Roosevelt's intervention, a storm gradually subsided.However, within the military, there are still people who criticize this, and this person is MacArthur.

MacArthur's reluctance is not to say that he personally has a lot of opinions on Nimitz. In fact, from the very beginning, he firmly opposed the US military's advance along the Central Pacific route. ——In order to capture a Midway Island, the Japanese Combined Fleet stole chickens without losing money, and it has gone downhill since then. This shows how unlucky it is to hit the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Of course, Lao Mai did not shy away from another meaning of his own, that is, while the Central Pacific is advancing mightily, it will inevitably make his southwest theater unable to get supplies, thus slowing down the speed of its wheel campaign.

Since the success of "Operation Coin", MacArthur has been deploying the next step. He must be fast, and must not be slow, let alone be dragged down by others.Not long after Nimitz's "recovery operation" ended, MacArthur formulated a "smart combat" plan, and the McArthur chariot set off again. This time, even the Japanese can guess where MacArthur's wheels are going to go-the New Britain Island where Rabaul is located.