_LVT-2 comes ashore on Green Beach on approximately D+2_]
The LVT-2 entered production in June 1942, but did not see combat until
Tarawa in November 1943. The Marines used a combination of LVT-1s and
LVT-2s in the assault on Betio. The 50 LVT-2s used at Tarawa were
modified in Samoa just before the battle with 3/8-inch boiler plates
installed around the cab for greater protection from small arms fire
and shell fragments. Despite the loss of 30 of these vehicles to enemy
fire at Tarawa, the improvised armor was considered promising and led
to a call for truly armored LVTs.
The LVT(A)2 [“A” for armored] requested by the U.S. Army was a
version which saw limited use with the Marine Corps. The LVT(A)2 had
factory-installed armor plating on the hull and cab to resist heavy
machine gun fire. The new version appeared identical to the LVT-2
with the exception of armored drivers’ hatches. With legitimate armor
protection, the LVT(A)2 could function as an assault vehicle in the
lead waves of a landing. The armored amphibian vehicle provided
excellent service when it was introduced to Marine operations on New
Britain.
More than 3,000 LVT-2s and LVT(A)2s were manufactured during World War
II. These combat vehicles proved to be valuable assets to Marine Corps
assault teams throughout the Pacific campaign, transporting thousands
of troops and tons of equipment. The overall design, however, left
some operational deficiencies. For one thing, the vehicles lacked a
ramp. All troops and equipment had to be loaded and unloaded over the
gunwales. This caused problems in normal field use and was particularly
hazardous during an opposed landing. This factor would lead to the
further development of amphibian tractors in the LVT family during the
war.
_Compiled by Second Lieutenant Wesley L. Feight, USMC_
]
[Sidebar (page 14): ‘The Singapore Guns’
The firing on Betio had barely subsided before apocryphal claims
began to appear in print that the four eight-inch naval rifles used
as coastal defense guns by the Japanese were the same ones captured
from the British at the fall of Singapore. Many prominent historians
unwittingly perpetuated this story, among them the highly respected
Samuel Eliot Morison.
In 1977, however, British writer William H. Bartsch published the
results of a recent visit to Tarawa in the quarterly magazine _After
the Battle_. Bartsch personally examined each of the four guns and
discovered markings indicating manufacture by Vickers, the British
ordnance company. The Vickers company subsequently provided Bartsch
records indicating the four guns were part of a consignment of 12
eight-inch, quick-firing guns which were sold in 1905 to the Japanese
during their war with Russia. Further investigation by Bartsch at the
Imperial War Museum produced the fact that there were no eight-inch
guns captured by the Japanese at Singapore. In short, the guns at
Tarawa came from a far more legitimate, and older, transaction with the
British.
The eight-inch guns fired the opening rounds in the battle of Tarawa,
but were not by themselves a factor in the contest. Earlier bombing
raids may have damaged their fire control systems. Rapid counterbattery
fire from American battleships took out the big guns in short order,
although one of them maintained an intermittent, if inaccurate, fire
throughout D+1. Colonel Shoup stated emphatically that the 2d Marine
Division was fully aware of the presence of eight-inch guns on Betio
as early as mid-August 1943. By contrast, the division intelligence
annex to Shoup’s operation order, updated nine days before the landing,
discounts external reports that the main guns were likely to be as
large as eight-inch, insisting instead that “they are probably not more
than 6-inch.” Prior knowledge notwithstanding, the fact remains that
many American officers were unpleasantly surprised to experience major
caliber near-misses bracketing the amphibious task force early on D-Day.
[Illustration: _Destruction of one of the four Japanese eight-inch
Vickers guns on Betio was caused by naval gunfire and air strikes._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 63618
]
]
[Sidebar (page 22): Sherman Medium Tanks at Tarawa
One company of M4-A2 Sherman medium tanks was assigned to the 2d Marine
Division for Operation Galvanic from the I Marine Amphibious Corps.
The 14 tanks deployed from Noumea in early November 1943, on board the
new dock landing ship _Ashland_ (LSD 1), joining Task Force 53 enroute
to the Gilberts. Each 34-ton, diesel-powered Sherman was operated by a
crew of five and featured a gyro-stabilized 75mm gun and three machine
guns. Regrettably, the Marines had no opportunity to operate with their
new offensive assets until the chaos of D-Day at Betio.
[Illustration: