EYE-WITNESS
TO TARAWA
Marine Sergeant
Tells Story of Battle
TARAWA—Master
Technical Sergeant Jim Lucas of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was the first Marine combat correspondent
to hit the beaches in the battle for Tarawa. He writes Tarawa was “…the
bitterest, costliest, most sustained fighting on any front.” Preceding the
battle was a sustained aerial and naval bombardment. Before the landings “…it
was great fun. We grinned and chortled…”, the expectation was no defenders
would be left alive. Instead, 4,000 entrenched imperial Japanese marines
awaited them. “Virtually every marine on Tarawa looked death in the face.” The stories from Tarawa will likely be told
and retold for months to come. There will be heroes named, but “…it is impossible
to single out one man…doing so we would overlook the thousands who have gone
through the same thing.”
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