• Source: Battle of Tarawa order of battle

On 10 November 1943, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Betio, located at the southwest corner of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands chain in the Central Pacific. This invasion, known as Operation Galvanic, was a phase of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
The landings on Betio were the Americans' third amphibious operation of the Pacific War, after Guadalcanal Island and Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island, but the first in which the Japanese vigorously resisted the landings on the beaches, pinning the Marines down with machine-gun and mortar fire. Worse, American planners at Pearl Harbor had grievously misjudged the timing of high tide at Betio, leaving the landing craft stranded on the shallow coral reefs where the Marines were slaughtered.
The island was declared secure after three days. Given the small size of Betio (0.59 sq. mi.), planners had expected it to take one.




Command structure






= Naval

=

The roles of Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) and Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC), were both exercised by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Since the Gilberts and Marshalls lie in the Central Pacific, their capture was the responsibility of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, led by Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance from aboard his flagship, heavy cruiser Indianapolis.
The ships and troops of Operations Galvanic (landings on Tarawa Atoll) and Kourbash (landings on Makin Atoll) were under direct operational command of Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner aboard old battleship Pennsylvania.




= Ground troops

=
V Amphibious Corps
Major General Holland M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith

Tarawa: 2nd Marine Division (Major General Julian C. Smith)
Makin: 27th Infantry Division (Army) (Major General Ralph C. Smith)
Both Admiral Turner and General Holland Smith sailed with the Northern Attack Force even though it was obvious that Tarawa would be the scene of the main ground action. If the Japanese mounted a counterattack, it was most likely to come from the Marshalls since the closest Japanese bases to the Gilberts were located there. Nimitz and Spruance wanted the two highest-ranking officers to sail with the forces that would be the first to encounter any such enemy response. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Japanese had stripped almost all their naval and air assets from the Marshalls in an attempt to resist the Allied effort in the Central Solomons. Thus, no counterattack materialized.




American






= Ground forces – Tarawa

=

2nd Marine Division
Major General Julian C. Smith

Asst. Div. Cmdr.: Brig. Gen. Leo D. Hermle
Chief of Staff: Col. Merritt A. Edson
Personnel officer (G-1): Lt. Col. C.P. van Ness
Intelligence officer (G-2): Lt. Col. Thomas J. Colley
Operations officer (G-3): Lt. Col. James P. Riseley
Logistics officer (G-4): Lt. Col Jesse S. Cook
Eastern landing area:
8th Marine Regiment
Colonel Elmer E. Hall
Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Paul D. Sherman
First Wave (Red Beach 3): 2nd Battalion (Maj. Henry P. Crowe)
Second Wave (Red Beach 3): 3rd Battalion (Maj. Robert H. Ruud)
Third Wave (Red Beach 2): 1st Battalion (Maj. Lawrence C. Hays Jr.)
Central landing area:
2nd Marine Regiment
Colonel David M. Shoup
Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Dixon Goen
First Wave (Red Beach 1): 3rd Battalion (Maj. John F. Schoettel)
First Wave (Red Beach 2): 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Herbert R. Amey, Jr. (KIA 20 Nov), then Lt. Col. Walter I. Jordan)
Second Wave (Red Beach 2): 1st Battalion (Major Wood B. Kyle)
Western landing area:
6th Marine Regiment
Colonel Maurice G. Holmes
Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Russell Lloyd
Third Wave (Green Beach): 1st Battalion (Maj. William K. Jones)
21–24 Nov (Outer Islands of Tarawa): 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Raymond L. Murray)
Fourth Wave (Green Beach): 3rd Battalion (Lt. Col. Kenneth F. McLeod)
10th Marine Regiment (Artillery)
Colonel Thomas E. Bourke
Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Ralph E. Forsyth
1st Battalion (Lt. Col. Presley M. Rixey)
2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. George R. E. Shell)
3rd Battalion (Lt. Col. Manly L. Curry)
4th Battalion (Lt. Col. Kenneth A. Jorgensen)
5th Battalion (Maj. Howard V. Hiett)
18th Marine Regiment (Engineer)
Colonel Cyril W. Martyr
Exec. Ofc.: Lt. Col. Ewart S. Laue
1st Battalion (Engineers) (Maj. George L.H. Cooper)
2nd Battalion (Pioneers) (Lt. Col. Chester J. Salazar)
3rd Battalion (Seabees) (Cmdr. Lawrence E. Tull, USN)
Other units
2nd Defense Battalion
2nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion (Maj. Henry C. Drewes (KIA 20 Nov))
2nd Tank Battalion (Lt. Col. Alexander B. Swenceski)




= Ground forces – Makin

=
27th Infantry Division (Army)
Major General Ralph C. Smith
165th Regimental Combat Team
3rd Battalion / 105th Infantry Regiment ("Appleknockers")




Japanese



Gilbert Islands defense forces
Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki (KIA 20 Nov)
Approx. 5,000 total men under arms

3rd Special Base Force
7th Sasebo SNLF
111th Construction Unit
4th Fleet Construction Dept. (detachment)




See also


Orders of battle" target="_blank">battle involving United States Marine forces in the Pacific Theatre of World War II:

battle" target="_blank">Battle of Guadalcanal order of battle" target="_blank">battle
battle" target="_blank">Battle of Saipan order of battle" target="_blank">battle
Guam (1944) order of battle" target="_blank">battle
battle" target="_blank">Battle of Leyte opposing forces
battle" target="_blank">Battle of Peleliu opposing forces
battle" target="_blank">Battle of Iwo Jima order of battle" target="_blank">battle
Okinawa ground order of battle" target="_blank">battle
Naval Base Tarawa




Sources


Clark, George B. (2006). The Six Marine Divisions in the Pacific: Every Campaign of World War II. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co. ISBN 978-0-7864-2769-7.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1951). Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls: June 1942 April 1944. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. VII. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-31658-307-7.




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