The Battle for Tarawa 1943 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Operation Galvanic

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was fought in late 1943. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts.

Answer: 2 miles long and 800 yards wide

Betio Island is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long. It is narrow, being only 800 yards (730 m) wide at its widest point. A long pier was constructed jutting out from the north shore onto which cargo ships could unload cargo while anchored beyond the 500-metre (550 yd)-wide shallow reef which surrounded the island. The northern coast of the island faces into the lagoon, while the southern and western sides face the deep waters of the open ocean.

Answer: 4,836 (2,636 IJN Marines and 2,200 construction labourers)

The Japanese worked intensely for nearly a year to fortify the island.To aid the garrison in the construction of the defenses, the 1,247 men of the 111th Pioneers, similar to the Seabees of the U.S. Navy, along with the 970 men of the Fourth Fleet's construction battalion were brought in. Approximately 1,200 of the men in these two groups were Korean labourers.

The garrison itself was made up of forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Special Naval Landing Force was the marine component of the IJN, and were known by US intelligence to be more highly trained, better disciplined, more tenacious and to have better small unit leadership than comparable units of the Imperial Japanese Army.

The 3rd Special Base Defense Force assigned to Tarawa had a strength of 1,112 men.

They were reinforced by the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, with a strength of 1,497 men. It was commanded by Commander Takeo Sugai. This unit was bolstered by 14 Type 95 light tanks under the command of Ensign Ohtani.

Answer: 4 x 8-inch Naval Guns

The Japanese worked intensely for nearly a year to fortify the island. As part of the defence, four large Vickers 8-inch guns purchased during the Russo-Japanese War from the British were emplaced on the island.

As the command believed their coastal guns would protect the approaches into the lagoon, an attack on the island was anticipated to come from the open waters of the western or southern beaches. Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, an experienced combat officer from the campaigns in China, relieved Tomonari on July 20, 1943, in anticipation of the coming fight. Shibazaki continued the defensive preparations right up to the day of the invasion. He encouraged his troops, saying "it would take one million men one hundred years" to conquer Tarawa.

Answer: 17 (6 CVs, 5 CVLs, and 6 CVEs)

The American invasion force to the Gilberts was the largest yet assembled for a single operation in the Pacific, consisting of 17 aircraft carriers (6 CVs, 5 CVLs, and 6 CVEs), 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 66 destroyers, and 36 transport ships.

Answer: 2nd Marine Division

The assault on Tarawa was carried out by 2nd Marine Division and a part of the Army's 27th Infantry Division, for a total of about 35,000 troops.

They had been withdrawn from Guadalcanal to New Zealand for rest and recuperation. Losses were replaced and the men given a chance to recover from the malaria and other illnesses that had weakened them through the fighting in the Solomon Islands.

Answer: 16-inch Guns

This counter battery work by the Battleships proved accurate, with several of the 16-inch shells finding their marks. One shell penetrated the ammunition storage for one of the guns, setting off a huge explosion as the ordnance went up in a massive fireball. Three of the four guns were knocked out in short order. One continued its intermittent, though inaccurate, fire through the second day.

The damage to the big guns left the approach to the lagoon open.

Answer: 3 hours

The supporting naval bombardment lifted and the Marines started their attack from the lagoon at 0900, thirty minutes later than expected.

Answer: A low tide

Marine battle planners had expected the normal rising tide to provide a water depth of 5 feet over the reef, allowing their four-foot draft Higgins boats room to spare. However on this day, the ocean and the next there was a neap tide meaning that there was only 3 feet depth.

The Tracked LVT-1's 'Alligators' were able to get some troops ashore, including some Sherman and Stuart tanks. By the end of the first day, half of the LVTs were out of action.

Answer: 5,000

By the end of the first day, of the 5,000 Marines put ashore, 1,500 were casualties, either dead or wounded.

Answer: To push inwards until it reached the southern shore

With the Marines holding a thin line on the island, the focus of the second day was for the forces on Red Beach 2 and 3 to push inward and divide the Japanese defenders into two sections, expanding the bulge near the airfield until it reached the southern shore.

Those forces on Red 1 were directed to secure Green Beach for the landing of reinforcements. Green Beach made up the entire western end of the island.

Answer: a banzai attack

Whilst there were a number of banzai attacks, there was a large banzai attack made at 03:00 and it met with some success, killing 45 Americans and wounding 128. With support from the destroyers USS Schroeder and USS Sigsbee, the Marines killed all 325 Japanese attackers.

Answer: USS Liscome Bay

The USS Liscome Bay was sunk with a loss of 687 of her complement. She had contributed her share of the air support for the Marines, but by the time of her sinking, her loss had no effect on the land battle. However, this loss was more than 30% of the total loss of life on the American side attributed to the Battle of Tarawa. Among the dead on the escort carrier was Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller.

Answer: 3,166 killed wounded or missing

The 2nd Marine Division suffered 894 killed in action, 48 officers and 846 enlisted men, while an additional 84 of the wounded survivors later succumbed to what proved to be fatal wounds. Of these, 8 were officers and 76 were enlisted men. A further 2,188 men were wounded in the battle, 102 officers and 2,086 men. Of the roughly 12,000 2nd Marine Division marines on Tarawa, 3,166 officers and men became casualties.

Answer: 17 surrendered

Of the 3,636 Japanese in the garrison, only one officer and sixteen enlisted men surrendered. Of the 1,200 Korean laborers brought to Tarawa to construct the defenses, only 129 survived. All told, 4,690 of the island's defenders were killed.