139 Missing WWII Marines Found on Tarawa

[82Rigger]

Marathon FL - November 24, 2008 -- During the early morning hours of 20 November 1943, Marines of the 2nd Marine Division mounted and amphibious attack against the Japanese stronghold of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands. The battle which lasted 72 hours would become infamous for the high number of casualties the Americans suffered. The sorrow was further compounded because many of the American bodies buried on the island were never recovered after the war.

In November 2007, the History Flight organization of Marathon, Florida and the WFI Research Group of Fall River, Massachusetts agreed to a joint, privately funded venture to locate and return the bodies of our war dead to their families. With the financial support of the VFW, The American Legion, The Baddour Foundation, private individuals and History Flight board members the joint effort was able to bring a team of professional researchers, historians and ground penetrating radar specialists together to find 139 of the 541 missing Marines from The Battle of Tarawa.

After 14 years of research conducted by the WFI Research Group at various research centers around the country and the second of two survey trips to the island completed November 8th 2008 by the History Flight Organization and the expenditure of thousands of dollars we are happy to announce that we have located 139 of the 541 MIAs from Tarawa in 8 separate mass burials on the island. All are believed to be the Marines and sailors from the actual battle and not later casualties. 5 of the 8 burial sites have had US Marine remains accidentally dug up during the extensive construction activity on the island. One of the burial sites contains the remains of Lt Alexander Bonnyman who won the Congressional Medal of Honor in the battle of Tarawa and is still buried on the island today.

The graves were located using a Mala X3M Ground Penetrating radar with 250 and 500 MHZ antennas and a surveyor quality Trimble GPS system donated for the trip by Ashtead Equipment of Atlanta GA.

“We are in the process of compiling the final reports on our efforts and when completed we will be contacting the Department of Defense POW-MIA Office and the Commandant of the Marine Corps” stated Mark Noah of the History Flight organization. “We’ll make one additional trip to the island to search for the remaining grave sites and make arrangements for the return and identification of the bodies. Allowing the families of the missing to finally have closure is our foremost goal” said Noah.

“Tarawa is the first of 14 projects we hope to accomplish in the coming years” said Ted Darcy of the WFI Research Group. “There were numerous problems encountered with the Tarawa project but we were able to overcome them all. We’ll be covering each of them in more detail in the final report which will be released next year” said Darcy.

The find of 139 missing in action service personnel is the largest in the history of the American Armed Forces. The previous high was the recovery of 19 Marines from Makin Atoll several years ago. Sadly, 72,766 American Armed Forces personnel are still listed as MIA from World War II, 541 are in the Tarawa area.

[DMZ-LT]

Welcome Home Marines , Thank You ! I will make sure my grandbabies will know of your service to our country and our freedom.

[Packo]

about Tarawa about a year ago and can't for the life of me remember the name. Something like 3 days of hell...or something like that. I'll look for those interested. The real story of that battle finally came out in this book. I couldn't believe what I was reading. They got the tides wrong and almost all the landing craft got hung up on the reef. The Marines had to wade in from way out....like 1/2 a mile all the while under heavy machine gun, mortar, artillery, and small arms fire. Eddie Albert was a coxswain, (?), on a landing craft and was decorated for valor because of all the Marines he saved who were floundering in the water. It was a mess. The Japs were so dug in none of the landing prep fased them. Steve, thanks for posting this. I'm sure many of those still missing were killed out in the water and will never be found and Lt....hopfully we Americans will always remember their sacrifice. I know I will.

Pack

[DMZ-LT]

Just finished reading " LAST MAN STANDING" about Peleliu after Tarawa .six or seven days of head on into a wall of fortified positions. 70 percent casualties.When we got into a bunker complex , in Vietnam , we fell back and called in the world on them.These guys kept going forward ,did I say 70 percent casualties. Lost 50 percent one day and we were not a combat unit any more. Fired artillery on both sides of the road getting us out of there. Peace Brothers

[82Rigger]

At Tarawa, during low tide, there was barely enough water over the reef to support landing craft. But even worse, unknown to the battle planners, the area also had “dodging” tides, neap tides, which effectively cancelled the high tide. Also, the earth was at its closest approach to the sun and there would be a strong opposing solar tide.

What it all boiled down to is that, on Nov 20th, the HIGH tide would be LOWER than the normal LOW tide.

Local islanders desperately tried to explain this to the Marines and Navy...to no avail...and the Marines paid the price.

The landing craft got stuck on the reefs and the Marines had to wade into shore from 600 to 800 yards out, through chest-deep water with full gear, stepping in holes in the coral and breaking legs and ankles, taking machine gun fire all the way in.

The Marines that DID get ashore took cover behind a low seawall built of logs and were pinned there by an unbelieveable volume of Japanese defensive fire.

A Japanese Marine flanked the seawall, swam out to one of the grounded landing craft, and turned its Ma Deuce on the Marines' rear. He was eventually silenced, but not before he took a toll.

By the end of the 20th, U.S. forces had secured a foothold on the beaches, but it was tenuous. And behind those forces, the reef that bore so little significance in the planning was littered with blown-up landing craft, destroyed tanks, and the floating bodies of Marines who couldn’t find shelter before death found them.

Immediately after the battle the Seabees came ashore with dozers and graders and other tracked vehicles, and the graves of 541 Marines were lost.

I sure hope they find the rest of these Marines.

They need to come home.

Semper Fi.

[locksly]

Welcome Home Marines