"Tanks at Tarawa" Topic

Chieftains Hatch: Tanks at Tarawa
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Tanks in Hell: YouTube link

Tarawa was the first major test of tanks against heavily fortified beach defenses. Many tanks were lost to submerged reefs or anti-tank guns before reaching the shore. Survivors acted as mobile shields for infantry, who sometimes stood behind turrets to shout directions to the crew through the noise and smoke.

Some tanks could not come ashore in their assigned spots because wounded were on the ground and could not be moved.

On Red 3 the seven Sherman tanks that made it to the beach attracted so much attention with mortars that infantryman nearby were being hit. Major Crowe had no choice but to tell the tanks to move inland but infantry were not able to follow. The tanks radios could not talk to the infantry radios.

The Shermans moved over the seawall and began to take out the bunkers they could identify, Two fell into shell holes, two were knocked out by Japanese guns and yet another was disabled by a Navy dive bomber responding to the threat of several Japanese tanks still moving on the island. A Japanese infantry attack with explosives knocked out yet another and the surviving tank on the USMC center, named "Colorado," limped back to the beach on fire, wading into the sea to douse the flames.

The light tanks of B Company did not come ashore on Green Beach until late on the second day of the battle, and most of C Company landed on the third day.

Most of the light tanks lay at the bottom of ship holds stuffed with various supplies still undeliverable to the hostile shore. Each platoon rode a different transport and loading the tanks by cargo boom into the bobbing LCMs imposed the usual problems.

The troop commander ashore, Col. David M. Shoup, radioed the discouraging message, "tanks no good" and called for his regiment's M-3 GMC tank destroyers to land, but neither of these lasted long enough to make a dent in the enemy positions.

I think some of these accounts present interesting situations and decisions for players.

Wolfhag

An excellant additional book on Marine tanks is Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific by Oscar E. Gilbert, 2001. It's full of detailed battle accounts. The author, a former Marine artilleryman, was the National Information Coordinator for the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society at the time of publication.