Last week, some 2,000 or 3,000 United States Marines,

most of them now dead or wounded,

gave the nation a name to stand beside those of Concord Bridge,

the Bonhomme Richard, the Alamo, Little Big Horn, and Bella Wood. The name was Tarawa.

War correspondent Robert Sherrod, writing for Time magazine December 6th, 1943.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

...women. Episode 418 Bloody Bloody Tarawa.

The last time we discussed the Pacific War back in episode 412, I described to you Operation

Cartwheel, Douglas MacArthur's master plan for advancing north and west from Guadalcanal and to New Guinea,

with the ultimate goal of capturing Rabao, Japan's most important base in the region.

By August 1943, the Allies had captured Lai on New Guinea and were advancing on the Huan Peninsula,

which is the part of New Guinea that comes

closest to the island of New Britain, where Rabal is located. At their closest, they come within

60 nautical miles. That's 70 mile miles, or 110 kilometers. On the other hand, Rabal is located

at the opposite end of New Britain, a long and

slender island that is 500 kilometers or 300 miles long. Also by August 1943, Allied forces,

mostly American, had secured control of New Georgia Island in the central Solomon's.

The advance along the Solomon Islands chain, northwest from Guadalcanal was the second prong

of MacArthur's planned advance on Rabau.

The loss of New Georgia was a serious blow to Japan. The Japanese had invested time and resources

in building an airbase on New Georgia, which they intended to use to counter the U.S. airbase on

Guadalcanal, but the Allies had taken the airbase from them in a matter of weeks.

...