Rear Adm. Harry Hill, who command the task force attacking Tarawa, called Betio "a little Gibraltar" and said "only the Marines could have made such a landing." Four Marines were awarded the Medal ...

During the 76 hours of violent battle at Tarawa last November the Marines’ beachhead commander, 39-year-old Colonel David M. Shoup, of Battle Ground, Indiana, carefully concealed a painful fact ...

Tarawa Class: Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding Service: USN, USMC Armament: 2x RAM launchers; 2x Phalanx 20 mm CIWS mount; 3x .50 cal. machine guns; 4x 25 mm Mk 38 machine guns. Propulsion ...

But this was like saying hello." It was within the Tarawa atoll, on a tropical sandbar the size of the National Mall, where U.S. Marines and Navy sailors confronted the forces of an emboldened ...

Getty Images A US Marine fires at a Japanese pillbox bunker during the Battle of Tarawa The bodies are believed to belong to the 6th Marine Regiment, which were part of the 18,000 American ...