Chapter 10 8 Simultaneous occupation of Makin and Abamama

Although the main target of the Lightning Operation was Tarawa Atoll, the attack on Gilbert's other two atolls also accounted for an important part of the battle. The preparatory attack plan for Makin Atoll coincides with the attack plan for Tarawa Atoll. General Taner's mothership force and naval gun support force will never be inferior to General Scheer's force.The only difference is that Taina's mothership is a high-speed mobile force.Compared with Tarawa, Makin Atoll is closer to the Japanese base in Turuk. Therefore, General Taina is more likely to encounter the Japanese fleet to attack.

Three battalions land on Butali Dali Island The target of the Makin Landing Force, the 27th Infantry Division of the Army, was Butali Dali Island.The shape of the island resembles a golf club, with the east facing west, and the slender pole less than ten kilometers facing northeast. The landing plan was: two battalions of the 165th Infantry Regiment would make a surprise landing on the western end of the island from the ocean side, and then the third battalion would launch a landing operation from the coral reef on the morning of D-Day.Like the landing of the Marine Corps on Betio Island, in order to break through the coral reefs around Butali Dali Island, the Army's vanguard will use tracked amphibious landing vehicles.

The soldiers on the tracked amphibious landing vehicle belonged to the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 165th Infantry Regiment (supported by the landing vehicle unit of the Ralph Smith Division).At the stage of combat preparations, Smith was not too sure about whether he would get a tracked amphibious landing vehicle.For this reason, Smith ordered the 165th Regiment to conduct landing training with landing boats.Thirteen days before departure to Majin, fifty crawler-type amphibious landing vehicles arrived unexpectedly. Smith was overjoyed, so he asked the third battalion of the same regiment to take these crawler-type amphibious landing vehicles to serve as the first Echelon landing commando.

Thirty-two LVT II ships formed the first echelon commando off the west coast.The 1st and 3rd Battalion Small Boat Commandos of the 165th Regiment followed closely behind.Unlike the Betio landings, there was no intense confrontation on the coast of Butali Dali. About 800 Japanese defenders gathered in the area from the seaside to three kilometers inland.The tracked amphibious landing vehicle was unharmed and reached the coast at 8:32 am.Most of the boats following behind were stranded on coral reefs, and the infantry had to go ashore on foot.Fortunately, there was no rain of bullets. As the battalions fought to secure the island's western tip, they encountered only sporadic sniper fire and little resistance.Within an hour and a half of landing, Commander Smith had secured a bridgehead on the coast.

The 165th Regiment marched eastward toward the Japanese defensive position formed by a slender strip of bunkers, trenches, bunkers, etc. that traversed the island.When the U.S. army advanced to the jungle of Butali Dali, the shooting of the Japanese army gradually became fierce, but no trace of the Japanese soldiers was seen. In this advance, a company of the 3rd Battalion of the 165th Regiment (riding 16 crawler-type amphibious landing vehicles) served as the leader, and the 2nd Battalion of the same regiment took a landing boat, passed the entrance of the lagoon, and headed towards the The north shore of the island bends over.This second battalion landed on the chosen coast, passing through the heart of the Japanese defensive positions, but there were no defensive positions on the coastline.Under the fierce naval gunfire and aviation attack, the second echelon assault landing wave set foot on the coast of Butali Dali, and then, there was still no counterattack, and everything went smoothly.At 10:40 in the morning, the soldiers of the second echelon had to walk 300 meters, so that they all became drowned chickens, but they were very free, and everyone walked swaggeringly.

Counterattack of the Japanese garrison The Japanese army adopted the method of catching the turtle in the urn, waiting for the landing troops to come within range.As a result, the advancing 165th Regiment suffered heavy shooting, while the Navy's 3rd Assault Battalion spent a thrilling day in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese.The dense jungle plants already made it difficult to move forward, and when preparing for the shelling, the trees were knocked to the side, making it even more difficult for the troops to move.Under such circumstances, let alone destroying the Japanese bunkers, even finding them is impossible.

When the 1st Battalion of the 165th Regiment approached the trap of the chariot, they didn't even feel it because of their poor vision. The Japanese soldiers waited quietly for the American soldiers to enter the urn, and then launched a series of endless shots.There was a commotion in the jungle.Army officers and soldiers have not received the rigorous training of the Second Marine Division, so they fought hard.After nightfall, the two attacking troops dug trenches in an area very close to the Japanese army (the distance that grenades could reach), and lurked tremblingly. It was a night of terror for the inexperienced U.S. Army soldiers.Japanese soldiers sneaked into the U.S. front and engaged in sabotage everywhere.These recruits couldn't distinguish between a real attack and a feint, and they just blindly fired fiercely.After the east turned white, the army soldiers realized that the Japanese army was not damaged at all and was still very active, while the American soldiers had tasted all the bitterness, and it can be said that they had learned a very painful lesson.

The whole day of November 21, the close combat continued. Therefore, the assault squad that only used infantry and engineers did not use support weapons to deal with the Japanese army.Although the speed was slow, it also destroyed the Japanese bunker and killed the guards inside.At dusk that day, all the positions of the Japanese army were destroyed, and the remaining Japanese soldiers panickedly used the night to retreat to the east. On the morning of the 22nd, the 3rd Battalion of the 165th Regiment crossed the chariot trap in the east, pursued the Japanese soldiers, and entered the dense forest.Towards dusk, the attacking teams inadvertently encountered the Japanese defensive positions again, so they had to stop their advance.That night, the battalion dug trenches and hid in front of the Japanese positions. In the middle of the night, a small-scale assault was launched at a lightning speed.After dawn, fifty-one Japanese corpses were found around the position.The battalion then advanced towards the overhang of the island without encountering any resistance.

At 11:30 am on the 23rd, when Julian of Petio Island.Two hours before Maj. Gen. Smith of the Marine Corps reported that the island had been captured, 27th Infantry Division Commander Ralph J.Major General Smith had telegraphed the capture of Makin Island to General Tyner. To capture Makin Island, the 27th Infantry Division cost 65 dead and 152 declared wounded, or about 3 percent of the attacking force.The Japanese army was completely wiped out.About 104 Koreans were captured. sunk the US frigate Off the coast of Makin Island, the U.S. military paid a greater price than the result of occupying the atoll coast.On the morning of November 24, the Japanese submarine Yi 175 tracked down three escort carrier groups.Her torpedo hit the Liscombe, setting the bomb vault on fire.This time the explosion cut off the rear half of the hull, and after only twenty-three minutes, she disappeared into the sea.Henry on board the mothership.Rear Admiral Malinick, fifty-two officers, and five hundred and ninety-two officers and soldiers died with the ship.

In the lightning operation, the third atoll planned to be captured was Abamama.The U.S. military believes that the defense of this island is extremely lax, and the Japanese army may not pay much attention to it. However, this lagoon, which is nineteen kilometers long and eight kilometers wide, is extremely valuable as a naval advance base.The U.S. military has always believed that the resistance of the Japanese army may not be worth mentioning. Therefore, it only dispatched the reconnaissance company of the Fifth Amphibious Army (commanded by Captain Jim Jones of the Marine Corps) to undertake the mission of landing operations.As for the transportation of Jones' troops, the submarine Nautilus was in charge.

After picking up a reconnaissance company at Pearl Harbor, the submarine sailed to Tarawa to spy on enemy ships.On November 19, the Nautilus floated up in order to increase its speed, and rushed all the way towards the target.During the voyage on the water, she met the US destroyer Linkede. The destroyer did not know that there were American submarines near this sea area, so it fired a 127mm shell at the Nautilus submarine indiscriminately.The submarine did not even have the chance to inform the destroyer that it had hit the wrong person. It quickly dived into the sea, and when it was a considerable distance away from the ship sailing towards Tarawa, it first surfaced, carried out emergency repairs, and sailed quickly to Abama Island. .On the afternoon of November 20, the ship finally reached the offshore waters of Abama Island Atoll. Landing in Abama The reconnaissance company used rubber rafts to cross the violent currents and occupied the atoll and the western part of the island of the same name, Abama Island.After broad daylight, the Marines began to advance calmly towards the six islands of Abamama Atoll, heading east at first, and then turning north soon.They encountered three Japanese scouts, but only killed one of them.When they were tracking the other two scouts, they bumped into the earth crowd unexpectedly.According to them, about twenty-five Japanese soldiers were digging trenches on a neighboring island.On November 23rd and 4th, when they crossed the sandbar and tried to pass through the Japanese positions, they were immediately repelled by fierce gunfire. Captain Jones planned to take a rubber raft around to the rear of the Japanese army and attack from behind.So the Nautilus was asked to launch a naval artillery bombardment in order to support the company's actions.The roundabout tactics launched on the 24th had no effect at all because the Japanese army launched shelling and shooting like a swarm.In the afternoon of the same day, the arriving destroyers also started shelling, but the Japanese artillery fire was still unable to be suppressed.This time, the Japanese shooting has resulted in two war dead and two wounded. However, on the morning of November 25, the Japanese positions were unusually quiet.As a result of American shelling, four soldiers were killed, and the remaining garrison committed suicide.When the natives brought this news, in order to confirm the truth, Captain Jones immediately reinforced his small troops with less than 80 people, and notified the troops advancing to capture the atoll. On November 24, the Second Marine Division commander Julian.Major General Smith ordered the deputy head of Hamel to lead the landing force (made up of the third battalion of the sixth regiment as the core) to occupy Abama Island. General Scheer's battleship Maryland, escorting the transport, set off for Tarawa on November 25th and arrived off the coast of Abama on the 26th.Brigadier General Hamel's troops successfully landed and established defensive positions on the coast.On December 4, Hamel ceded command of the island to the senior officer of the navy, and then, joining the 2nd Division, retreated from Gilbert Island.