| Original caption: “Target – a pillbox – a Marine gets set to throw a hand-grenade at a Jap[anese] pillbox on Tarawa as the smoke of battle rolls back over the hastily thrown-up sand bag entrenchment.” In the wreckage of a Japanese log-and-sandbag emplacement beside the bulldozed sand hill protecting a larger shelter inland of Red Beach, 1 Marine throws a grenade while his buddy, grimacing in the heat, takes a drink – judging from the angle of his canteen it is almost empty. The landing force was desperately short of drinking water during the 1st 2 days’ fighting in the furnace heat of the equatorial summer. On D-Day, November 20, the initial assault waves on Red Beach were so decimated that movement inland was by small groups of Marines, and they often had to pull back to friendly lines for fire support. Japanese snipers took a fearsome toll, making movement treacherous. Private 1st Class S. David Spencer (September 15, 1923 – October 15, 1996) of Detroit, Michigan, assigned to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, took cover in a shell hole himself from the intense Japanese fire. He recalled shooting at a Japanese sniper in the next shell hole, who returned fire – both missed. He tossed a grenade to silence the Rikusentai (“Special Naval Landing Force”). At times, he played dead to get sniper fire to stop. Correspondent Robert Sherrod (February 8, 1909 – February 13, 1994) landed on Red Beach after wading in 700 yards (640 meters) under heavy Japanese fire. Taking cover behind an LVT Amtrac, he moved to the seawall with another correspondent and dug a foxhole. He estimated that the Marines held “twenty feet along perhaps one sixteenth of one half of one side of the island, plus a few men in shell holes on either side of the airstrip” – the Japanese held all of the rest of Betio. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1609.jpg |
| Image Size | 355.74 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2910 x 2203 |
| 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 | Library of Congress |
| Record Number | LC-USZ62-98194 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database