NEW OFFENSIVE
IN PACIFIC
Makin and
Tarawa Fall on Same Day
PEARL HARBOR—The capture of Makin atoll in the Gilbert
Islands was announced last Tuesday on the fourth day of the new American
offensive in the central Pacific. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox stated the
Gilbert Islands represent a “much more direct route to Japan.” Tarawa atoll, south
of Makin in the Gilberts chain, was also invaded in the operation that
commenced on Saturday, November 20. Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson, of the
famed Carlson’s Raiders that made an attack on Makin in August of last year,
said Tarawa was “one of the toughest battles ever fought in 168 years of U.S.
Marine Corps history.” Secretary Knox said the entire garrison of 4,000
imperial Japanese marines is believed to have been wiped out.
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