_Col William K. Jones, USMC, a major during the battle of Tarawa,
commanded Landing Team 1/6, the first major unit to land intact on
Betio. The advance of 1/6 eastward on D+2 helped break the back
of Japanese resistance, as did the unit’s repulse of the Japanese
counterattack that night. Jones’ sustained combat leadership on Betio
resulted in a battlefield promotion to lieutenant colonel._]
On the third day, Crowe reorganized his tired forces for yet another
assault. First, the former marksmanship instructor obtained cans of
lubricating oil and made his troops field strip and clean their Garands
before the attack. Crowe placed his battalion executive officer, Major
William C. Chamberlin, in the center of the three attacking companies.
Chamberlin, a former college economics professor, was no less dynamic
than his red-mustached commander. Though nursing a painful wound in his
shoulder from D-Day, Chamberlin was a driving force in the repetitive
assaults against the three strongpoints. Staff Sergeant Hatch recalled
that the executive officer was “a wild man, a guy anybody would be
willing to follow.”
At 0930, a mortar crew under Chamberlin’s direction got a direct hit
on the top of the coconut log emplacement which penetrated the bunker
and detonated the ammunition stocks. It was a stroke of immense good
fortune for the Marines. At the same time, the medium tank “Colorado”
maneuvered close enough to the steel pillbox to penetrate it with
direct 75 mm fire. Suddenly, two of the three emplacements were overrun.
[Illustration: _Against the still potent and heavily defended,
entrenched Japanese positions the 6th Marines advanced eastward on D+2._
LtGen Julian C. Smith Collection
]
The massive bombproof shelter, however, was still lethal. Improvised
flanking attacks were shot to pieces before they could gather momentum.
The only solution was to somehow gain the top of the sand-covered mound
and drop explosives or thermite grenades down the air vents to force
the defenders outside. This tough assignment went to Major Chamberlin
and a squad of combat engineers under First Lieutenant Alexander
Bonnyman. While riflemen and machine gunners opened a rain of fire
against the strongpoint’s firing ports, this small band raced across
the sands and up the steep slope. The Japanese knew they were in grave
danger. Scores of them poured out of a rear entrance to attack the
Marines on top. Bonnyman stepped forward, emptied his flamethrower into
the onrushing Japanese, then charged them with a carbine. He was shot
dead, his body rolling down the slope, but his men were inspired to
overcome the Japanese counterattack. The surviving engineers rushed to
place explosives against the rear entrances. Suddenly, several hundred
demoralized Japanese broke out of the shelter in panic, trying to flee
eastward. The Marines shot them down by the dozens, and the tank crew
fired a single “dream shot” canister round which dispatched at least 20
more.
[Illustration:
BETIO
TARAWA ATOLL, GILBERT ISLANDS
ATTACK OF THE 1ST BN. 6th MARINES (LT 1/6)
NOV. 22 1943
]
Lieutenant Bonnyman’s gallantry resulted in a posthumous Medal of
Honor, the third to be awarded to Marines on Betio. His sacrifice
almost single-handedly ended the stalemate on Red Beach Three. Nor is
it coincidence that two of these highest awards were received by combat
engineers. The performances of Staff Sergeant Bordelon on D-Day and
Lieutenant Bonnyman on D+2 were representative of hundreds of other
engineers on only a slightly less spectacular basis. As an example,
nearly a third of the engineers who landed in support of LT 2/8 became
casualties. According to Second Lieutenant Beryl W. Rentel, the
survivors used “eight cases of TNT, eight cases of gelatin dynamite,
and two 54-pound blocks of TNT” to demolish Japanese fortifications.
Rentel reported that his engineers used both large blocks of TNT and an
entire case of dynamite on the large bombproof shelter alone.
[Illustration: _The 8th Marines makes its final assault on the large
Japanese bombproof shelter near the Burns-Philp pier. These scenes were
vividly recorded on 35mm motion picture film by Marine SSgt Norman
Hatch, whose subsequent eyewitness documentary of the Tarawa fighting
won a Motion Picture Academy Award in 1944._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 63930
]
At some point during the confused, violent fighting in the 8th
Marines’ zone--and unknown to the Marines--Admiral Shibasaki died
in his blockhouse. The tenacious Japanese commander’s failure to
provide backup communications to the above-ground wires destroyed
during D-Day’s preliminary bombardment had effectively kept him from
influencing the battle. Japanese archives indicate Shibasaki was able
to transmit one final message to General Headquarters in Tokyo early
on D+2: “Our weapons have been destroyed and from now on everyone is
attempting a final charge.... May Japan exist for 10,000 years!”
[Illustration: