With the Marines at Tarawa

2/7/2024

With just about every Governmental agency behind it, this is clearly designed for US domestic consumption to bolster morale ahead of the looming D-Day - and it doesn't pull it's punches. On the other side of the world, a squad of marines is gathered on the deck of a destroyer attending a church service. They are aware that next day, they are to embark on a perilous mission to dispossess the Japanese of an airfield on the strategically important island of Tarawa. A successive series of naval and aerial bombardments over three days will hopefully soften up their opponents before the ground assault, but even then their tenacious enemy is never going to be a pushover and will test the mettle of these courageous soldiers with some fierce counter-attacking. The photography and, especially, the a