What do you think?
Rate this book
Osprey Campaign #77
Tarawa 1943: The Turning of the Tide
The island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll was defended by the elite troops of the Special Naval Landing Force, whose commander, Admiral Shibasaki, boasted that "the Americans could not take Tarawa with a million men in a hundred years". In a pioneering amphibious invasion, the Marines of the 2nd Division set out to prove him wrong, overcoming serious planning errors to fight a 76-hour battle of unprecedented savagery. The cost would be more than 3000 Marine casualties at the hands of a garrison of some 3700. The lessons learned would dispel forever any illusions that Americans had about the fighting quality of the Japanese.
96 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2000
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 4, 2017
Wright, or his editors, make some errors in the book that make me skeptical of the work as a whole.
He provides a chronology of events in the Pacific war leading up to Tarawa on page 12. In it he has the battle of Midway having been fought a month earlier than it actually was, and places it before the battle of Coral Sea. He describes Midway (as do most authors) as the turning point of the Pacific War. You'd think he'd get the date right.
On page 29 he writes that on D-Day "...the temperature was soaring: Tarawa is only eighty miles (125 km) north of the equator, and November was the height of summer. Throughout the battle the Marines were to suffer from furnace-like heat and acute water shortages. In another of the numerous planning blunders that plagued the operation, it had been decided to utilize the oil drums to transport the drinking water, but inadequate learning somewhere along the line resulted in tainted water which caused countless cases of vomiting and stomach pains."
Tarawa is indeed just north of the equator, but that places the November invasion in the northern hemisphere near "the height of" winter, not summer. In any case the average temperature in Tarawa varies little year round, given it's location near the equator. According to the Pacific Climate Change Science program, it is always hot.
Then, contradicting what he says above, he writes on page 76 in a photo caption, "At the height of summer and only 50 miles from the Equator the heat on Betio was furnace-like." So it's summer now? And the island moved thirty miles closer to the Equator?
This is the first account of Tarawa that's mentioned tainted water supplies. The scenario as described is identical to the accounts of the battle of Peleliu eleven months later. Now I may be in error here, but that strikes me as a huge coincidence. Given that this is the same exact error, I would think it would be mentioned in accounts of Peleliu. Screwing this up twice is a notable logistical failure. It appears that the author mistakenly plugged the Peleliu account into the Tarawa one. If so, he may be using a corrupted source.
At least twice he describes the 75 mm pack howitzers and 75 mm guns on the Sherman tanks as being ".3 inch" guns. Later on page 92 he provides fairly accurate breakdowns of the exact caliber of the guns used in the battle.
His appendix at the end of the casualties suffered by the Marines is confusing. It has the following categories of casualties:
Killed in action
Wounded-killed
Died of wounds
Missing-presumed dead
Wounded-missing dead
Wounded in action
Combat fatigue
"Wounded-missing dead" is a mystery to me, as is "wounded killed".
The book suffers from the same defects that so many of Osprey's books do...inaccuracies that make me mistrust them as solid sources. That said, I enjoy them for the most part. This book, however, isn't as good of an account of the battle as others I've read. One of those is by Wright himself: "A Hell Of A Way To Die, Tarawa 1943", and is listed in his bibliography in this Osprey edition.
He provides a chronology of events in the Pacific war leading up to Tarawa on page 12. In it he has the battle of Midway having been fought a month earlier than it actually was, and places it before the battle of Coral Sea. He describes Midway (as do most authors) as the turning point of the Pacific War. You'd think he'd get the date right.
On page 29 he writes that on D-Day "...the temperature was soaring: Tarawa is only eighty miles (125 km) north of the equator, and November was the height of summer. Throughout the battle the Marines were to suffer from furnace-like heat and acute water shortages. In another of the numerous planning blunders that plagued the operation, it had been decided to utilize the oil drums to transport the drinking water, but inadequate learning somewhere along the line resulted in tainted water which caused countless cases of vomiting and stomach pains."
Tarawa is indeed just north of the equator, but that places the November invasion in the northern hemisphere near "the height of" winter, not summer. In any case the average temperature in Tarawa varies little year round, given it's location near the equator. According to the Pacific Climate Change Science program, it is always hot.
Then, contradicting what he says above, he writes on page 76 in a photo caption, "At the height of summer and only 50 miles from the Equator the heat on Betio was furnace-like." So it's summer now? And the island moved thirty miles closer to the Equator?
This is the first account of Tarawa that's mentioned tainted water supplies. The scenario as described is identical to the accounts of the battle of Peleliu eleven months later. Now I may be in error here, but that strikes me as a huge coincidence. Given that this is the same exact error, I would think it would be mentioned in accounts of Peleliu. Screwing this up twice is a notable logistical failure. It appears that the author mistakenly plugged the Peleliu account into the Tarawa one. If so, he may be using a corrupted source.
At least twice he describes the 75 mm pack howitzers and 75 mm guns on the Sherman tanks as being ".3 inch" guns. Later on page 92 he provides fairly accurate breakdowns of the exact caliber of the guns used in the battle.
His appendix at the end of the casualties suffered by the Marines is confusing. It has the following categories of casualties:
Killed in action
Wounded-killed
Died of wounds
Missing-presumed dead
Wounded-missing dead
Wounded in action
Combat fatigue
"Wounded-missing dead" is a mystery to me, as is "wounded killed".
The book suffers from the same defects that so many of Osprey's books do...inaccuracies that make me mistrust them as solid sources. That said, I enjoy them for the most part. This book, however, isn't as good of an account of the battle as others I've read. One of those is by Wright himself: "A Hell Of A Way To Die, Tarawa 1943", and is listed in his bibliography in this Osprey edition.
July 1, 2022
Excellent read but sloppy fact checking and editing tarnish the book
The narrative is strong and captivating
The author successful portrays the difficulties and horrors of D day the marines faced
On the downside both the author and editor get a failing mark : the opening part of the book mentions the midway battle twice and in both instances get the date wrong and compound the error by listing it before the coral sea battle
Very unprofessional
The narrative is strong and captivating
The author successful portrays the difficulties and horrors of D day the marines faced
On the downside both the author and editor get a failing mark : the opening part of the book mentions the midway battle twice and in both instances get the date wrong and compound the error by listing it before the coral sea battle
Very unprofessional
December 14, 2022
quick and easy to read. lots of detail
November 16, 2008
I picked up a bunch of books from the Praeger Illustrated Military Histories series for a buck each recently; this was the first I read. Tarawa was a major turning point in the Pacific War, when the Allies first really started fighting back, though at massive cost. This was a serviceable, occasionally engaging, though never spectacular book.
January 1, 2013
This book provides an excellent overall look at the battle of Tarawa and the Gilbert Island campaign during WWII. It has vivid charts, maps, illustrations, which give the reader a feel for what the Marines faced. I would definitely recommend this book as a starter for anyone interested in the battle and the Pacific war in general.
January 12, 2008
Detailed but concise account of the Marine Corps battle for Betio island in the Tarawa atoll in 1943. Horrifying piece of history, but damn interesting.
Read
June 10, 2011Great book
February 20, 2015
High rating is mostly for the maps and photographs. Prose is drier than dirt.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews