page_title: Gilbert Islands naval order of battle
section_title: Fire Support Group (Task Group 53.4)
hierarchical_section_title: Gilbert Islands naval order of battle / Forces afloat / TF 53 Southern Attack Force (Tarawa) / Fire Support Group (Task Group 53.4)
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) underway in Puget Sound, Washington (USA), on 12 May 1943, after modernization.
context_page_description: On 20 November 1943, simultaneous landings were made by United States Marine Corps forces on Tarawa and United States Army forces on Makin, two coral atolls located in the Gilbert Islands chain in the South-Central Pacific.
  Unlike at the Allied landings on Guadalcanal the previous fall, the Japanese chose to violently oppose the Marines on the beach at Betio, the principal island of the Tarawa Atoll. These extremely well-planned defenses, combined with unexpected tidal conditions, made the fight for Tarawa one of the most difficult for the Marine Corps of the entire Pacific Theater.
  Makin was declared secure on 25 November, Tarawa on 27 November.
  The naval forces assigned to capture the Gilberts formed the largest armada yet assembled by either side in the Pacific, considerably larger than the Allied force that mounted the invasion of Guadalcanal and dwarfing the Japanese force that attacked Pearl Harbor.
  TF 50 – Carrier Force:
  6 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers, 6 fast battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 3 anti-aircraft light cruisers, 21 destroyers
  TF 52 – Northern Attack Force:
context_section_description: Rear Admiral Howard F. Kingman
  Section 1
  1 old battleship: Tennessee (Capt. R. S. Haggart)
  1 light cruiser: Mobile (Capt. C. J. Wheeler)
  2 destroyers (both Benson-class): Bailey, Frazier
  Section 2
  1 old battleship: Maryland (Capt. C. H. Jones)
  1 light cruiser: Santa Fe (Capt. R. S. Berkey)
  2  destroyers (both Benson-class): Meade, Gansevoort
  Section 3
  1 old battleship: Colorado (Capt. W. Granat)
  1 heavy cruiser: Portland (Capt. A. D. Burhans)
  2 destroyers (both Sims-class): Anderson, Russell
  Section 4
  2 destroyers (both Fletcher-class): Ringgold, Dashiell
  Section 5
  1 heavy cruiser: Indianapolis (Capt. E. R. Johnson)
  1 destroyer (Fletcher-class): Schroeder
caption: Old battleship Tennessee after modernization
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