Battle of Tarawa order of battle
On 10 November, 1944, 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. Japanese. Gilbert Islands defense forces Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki (KIA 20 Nov) Approx. 5,000 total men under arms See also. Orders of battle involving United States Marine forces in the Pacific Theatre of World War II: Battle of Tarawa order of battle