On November 21, 1943, on the afternoon of the second day of battle for the Japanese-held island of Betio Marine Colonel Davis Shoup, wrote a quick note updating his commanding officer on his regiment’s situation , “Casualties: many. Percentage dead : not known. Combat efficiency: we are winning.” After American forces captured the island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese, they began planning an island hopping campaign across the central Pacific to Japan. In order to support the thrust into the Philippines and Japan itself, forward airbases would be needed. The heavily defended airbases in the Mariana Islands would have to be taken, but first the Gilbert and Marshall Island would have to be captured, using each captured island as a base to capture the next. The first island to be assaulted was Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, some 2500 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor.…show more content… As Martin Russ wrote in his book “Line of Departure : Tarawa”, “On the tiny island of Betio , the principal island of the Tarawa Atoll , the Japanese had constructed one of the most formidable fortresses in the history of warfare.” Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, commander of Japanese forces on Betio, boasted, "it would take one million men one hundred years, to conquer the island.” 5600 marines of the 2nd Marine Division took the island in 76 hours, but not without paying a heavy
