page_title: Gilbert Islands naval order of battle
section_title: Northern Carrier Group (Task Group 50.2)
hierarchical_section_title: Gilbert Islands naval order of battle / Forces afloat / Carrier Force (Task Force 50) / Northern Carrier Group (Task Group 50.2)
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) underway at 15 knots off Point Wilson, Washington (USA), on 11 July 1944.
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 Arthur W. Radford in fleet carrier Enterprise
  1 fleet carrier
  Enterprise (Capt. S. P. Ginder)
  Air Group 6 (Lt. Cmdr. E. H. O'Hare) (killed 26 Nov)
  VF-2: 36 F6F Hellcat fighters
  VB-6: 36 SBD Dauntless dive bombers
  VT-6: 18 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers
  2 light carriers
  Belleau Wood (Capt. A. M. Pride)
  Air Group 24 (Cmdr. R. H. Dale)
  VF-24: 26 F6F Hellcat fighters
    VF-6: 12 F6F Hellcat fighters
  VC-22B: 9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers
  Monterey (Capt. L. T. Hundt)
  Air Group 30 (Lt. Cmdr. J. G. Sliney, USNR)
  VF-30: 24 F6F Hellcat fighters
  VC-30:  9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers
  Battleship Division 6 (Rear Adm. G. B. Davis)
  3 fast battleships
  North Carolina (Capt. F. P. Thomas)
  Indiana (Capt. W. M. Fechteler)
  Massachusetts (Capt. T. D. Ruddock)
  Screen (Cmdr. H. F. Miller)
  6 destroyers (all Fletcher-class): Fletcher, Radford, Jenkins, Boyd, Bradford, Brown
caption: Fast battleship Massachusetts off Point Wilson, Washington, July 1944
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