| The battered remnants of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, have hunkered down along the seawall within the western half of Red Beach 3. There the lead waves of Marines prepare to make a last stand. As some Marines peer over the seawall, others scavenge machine gun ammunition from their dead comrades. At some point, an onlooker appeared to object to the scavenging, and apparently received a rebuke from a comrade who was gathering belted ammunition. Meanwhile, other scavengers continue right on with the task at hand. For most of D-day morning, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines was stalled by the lethargy of shock, which pinned hundreds of Marines behind the fireswept seawall. Here, on the left half of Red Beach 3, the main body of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, awaits inspiration or the need to defend the beach unto death. The Burns-Philp Wharf is just out of sight in the distant background. The 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines’ landing site was east of a long pier that jutted out into the Tarawa lagoon. The battalion’s zone was closer to the tail of the island. The other 2 battalions of the regiment had been placed in reserve. Both assault battalions qf the 2nd Marines were scheduled to land on beaches east of the pier. Amphibious tractors, LVT Amtracs, carrying the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines were the 1st to crawl up on the coral sands of Betio. The 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines hit the beach, at 0917 Hours. Japanese defenders had “warmly” greeted and challenged the 2nd Battalion even before it landed by shelling the approaching landing craft. As the tractors neared the shore, the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3 inch (75 millimeter) guns. Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach battle losses increased dramatically. E Company, for example, lost 5 of its 6 officers soon after it came ashore. United States Marine Major Henry P. Crowe’s (March 7, 1899 – June 27, 1991) men who had orders to seize the nearby airstrip were prevented from taking the objective because of devastating Japanese fire. The men were forced to dig in and hold their positions. Holding the American beachhead on Betio rested in good measure with Major Crowe’s battalion because it had been lucky enough to land in organized formations without sustaining particularly heavy losses. In contrast, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 2nd Marines, the other initial assault units, had both sustained a considerable number of killed and wounded – some more than 50 percent – in the movement ashore. Their bodies rolled in the surf and began to decompose before the day was out. For most of D-Day, November 20, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 8th Marines had been confined to small, crowded areas along the beach, forward progress had been painfully slow and costly. By nights fall the men of these units had only been able to penetrate to the edge of the airfield. An expected Japanese counterattack that evening failed to materialize — a rather puzzling fact since the American position was so precarious. In all likelihood, the still sizable Japanese garrison did not attack because its wire communications were destroyed in the preliminary bombardment. The 2nd Battalion continued its slugfest with the Japanese at the base of the Burns-Philp Pier. United States Marine Colonel David M. Shoup (December 30, 1904 – January 13, 1983) had ordered Major Crowe to mount another effort to reduce the Japanese’s fortifications there. F Company advanced against 2 positions — a steel pillbox to its front and a large reinforced bunker to its right front. Mutually reinforcing fires from both stymied the Marines. Support from G Company and a lone M4 Sherman medium tank proved to no avail. While preparations were underway for the renewal of the assault, supporting mortars lobbed shells at the entrenched Japanese. At 0930 Hours, 1 shell made a direct hit on the log emplacement and luckily detonated a supply of ammunition which blew the bunker apart. A lone Marine M4 Sherman tank at approximately the same time had taken the pillbox under fire and repeatedly slammed 75 millimeter (3 inch) shells into the reinforced structure. Marines from F and K Companies immediately began their advance with the explosion of the bunker. The Japanese, however, was not through and persisted in their resistance from the large bombproof shelter. Bitter fighting ensued with the Americans using flamethrowers and explosives on the structure. Once the outside wall had been scaled, the Japanese launched a counterattack. The charge was stopped and beaten back primarily through the efforts of 1st Lieutenant Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Junior (May 2, 1910 – November 23, 1943), of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, and an attached combat engineer unit. Bonnyman met the Japanese head-on, by spraying the attackers with liquid fire from his flamethrower. He eventually was cut down by Japanese riflemen, but not before he had ordered his men to place demolitions in the bunker’s entrances and explode them. Those Japanese inside who survived the explosion ran into a hail of small arms fire and grenades as they scampered through the wreckage in a futile attempt to escape. In just a few minutes over 100 Japanese soldiery had been killed. Lieutenant Bonnyman posthumously received the Medal of Honor. The entire 2nd Battalion, along with its supporting units, forged ahead with the attack until it reached the Japanese airfield. There it stopped for fear of coming under fire from the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, which was attacking along the coast. Crowe’s men then dug in and prepared to meet any Japanese units that might have been bypassed. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1610.jpg |
| Image Size | 638.52 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3000 x 2432 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Marine Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 20, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Betio |
| State or Province | Tarawa |
| Country | Gilberts |
| Archive | National Museum of the Pacific War |
| Record Number | NMPW_Tarawa-425 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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