PAST EVENTS
An absorbing slide-talk on "The Battle of Tarawa: Birth of a Legend" was presented by our Pacific WWII specialist, M. C. (Midge) Carter at our August meeting. Tarawa is one of some 16 atolls in the Gilberts group of islands, which are strung out over 700 miles in the Pacific, north-east of Australia. Tarawa was one of two atolls which became the major objectives of the American 5th Fleet. The southern attack force aiming at Tarawa was under command of Rear-Admiral Harry W. Hill on his flagship, the 'Maryland'. With him sailed his landing force counterpart Major-General Julian C. Smith, commanding the 2nd Marine Division. Tokyo had entrusted the defence of the Gilbert Islands to Rear-Admiral Keiji Shabasaki, who acted with great zeal to improve the defences; in particular in the south-west corner of the triangle of the Tarawa atoll, the islet of Betia was turned into a veritable fortress, almost completely surrounded by a protective barrier of coconut-palm trunks covered by automatic weapons, mortars and emplaced guns. Facing the sea were eight medium guns. Though over two miles long, Betio is less than half a mile wide and its 4 500-man garrison had been ordered to dig in on the coast line. At dawn on November 20, 1943 three battleships, four cruisers, and nine destroyers under Rear-Admiral Hill opened fire simultaneously and rained 3 000 tons of shells on to this narrow strip of land within two and a half hours. At the same time it was bombed by aircraft from Funafuti. By 08h45 it was on fire from end to end and covered with a thick pall of smoke and dust.
- But when the first amphibious vehicles, called "amphtracks", came out of the lagoon and the 2nd Marine Division's landing-craft approached the shore, they came under a hail of accurate and withering fire, even though the enemy had expected the attack to come from the open sea, and that from the lagoon side came as a complete surprise. The ensuing fight fell on lieutenants and their men, as radio communication between the command post at sea and the three beaches where the Marines landed was very bad. In the afternoon, the divisional commander Major-General Smith, threw in his reserve regiment, but in spite of this the Americans advanced only 150 yards at the most. It took a further 48 hours of infantry fighting with flame-throwers, explosives, and grenades to snuff out the last dying kicks of the defence. The entire Detio garrison perished except for one subaltern, 16 men, and 129 Korean labourers. Of the 16 798 U.S. officers and marines who fought at Tarawa, 1 069 were killed and 2 050 wounded, giving losses of some 17%. When it was all over this tiny island had 5 500 dead on it.
A sincere vote of thanks was moved from the chair, both speaker and to his dexterous manual-projector operator, Ken Gillings.
We were happy to welcome to this meeting land surveyor, Mr 'Shorty' Clark, who spent some years on Tarawa in the service of African Government.
FELICITATIONS
Congratulations on behalf of the members of this Branch are extended to fellow-member André Wessels on obtaining his Doctorate in philosophy for his Anglo-Boer War thesis entitled "The British Strategy from the outbreak to the Battle of Colenso".
FUTURE EVENTS
Programme of Monthly Get-togethers:
SEPTEMBER 11TH Fellow-member IAN SUTHERLAND will present a slide talk entitIed "A VISIT TO CULLODEN AND OTHER PLACES OF MILITARY HISTORY INTEREST".
October 16th Fellow-member Steve Watt will give a talk entitled "Exploring Military Cemeteries in Natal" (Please note that this meeting will take place on the third Thursday in October).
November 13th Fellow-member Commandant Justin Hulme will talk on "The History of the Commando System" (up to 1922). This talk will be based on research by the late Major Tylden.
December In recess'.
The venue for all meetings will be the Lecture Room, lower ground floor, 'SB' Bourquin Building, (Community Services Head Office) on the corner of Jan Smuts Highway and Buro Crescent, Mayville, on the second Thursday in the month (unless otherwise advised) commencing at 20h00. Glasses and ice will be supplied so please bring your own canned or bottled refreshments. Friends and interested persons are welcome to come along.
REMINDER: S.A. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY: PROPOSED TOUR OF ZULU MILITARY SITES. This tour, which departs from Johannesburg, has been planned for the long weekend commencing Thursday afternoon 9th October to Sunday 12th October 1986. Interested Natal members wishing to link up with this tour should address all communications to: The Tour Director, S.A. National Museum of Military History, PO Box 52..., Saxonwold. 2132. Telephone (011) 646-5513
(Mrs) Tania van der Watt,
Secretary, Durban Branch,
S.A. Military History Society,
Box 870, HILLCREST, 3650.
Tel. (031) vvvvvv