Across the Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa

The battle for Tarawa was supposed to take two days. It took four, and the American Marines learned in blood what amphibious warfare really meant. This tiny Pacific atoll, just 750 acres of coral and sand, became the proving ground for a new kind of war in November 1943. The Japanese had spent months fortifying Betio island, building concrete pillboxes, positioning artillery, and creating a killing field that would tear apart the first wave of attackers. When the Marines waded onto the reef, they discovered the shallow water that was supposed to be passable was anything but. Some drowned under the weight of their packs. Others were cut down before reaching the beach. The official casualty rate for the first day exceeded 30 percent. This is the story of how flawed planning, inadequate reconnaissance, and desperate courage combined on a reef surrounded by the bodies of young men. Joseph H. Alexander, a Marine veteran himself, draws on hundreds of interviews and official records to reconstruct the battle minute by minute. It remains the definitive account of a fight that changed how America wage war in the Pacific.