 These are the men of the 2nd Marine Division. We're now embarking on a full-scale amphibious operation after many months of intensive training. Tensports are combat loaded. The ships of the Navy and Coast Guard form our convoy. Squadrons of carrier planes cover us in the sky. Several days from our destination, the destroyer brings us sealed orders. It won't be long now before we know where we're bound. The relief map of our objective is broken out. Fortified Island of Betio and the Taro Airtel. A very important Jap air base on the outer fringe of their Pacific defenses. Our platoon leaders started explaining the terrain to us. By the time they were finished, we knew that island and its reefs as well as we knew our own backyards. We built more machine gun ammunition. Check and test fire all weapons. Exercise helped to relieve the tension. Navy and Coast Guard coxons received last-minute instructions on formations, rendezvous areas, and departure times. Services are held on the last evening before D-Day. We liked listening to Father Kelly. He'd been with us at Guadalcanal. He had a way of saying what we wanted to hear. Many of these men were killed the following morning. This is the day we attacked. Long before daylight, we were over the side into amphibian tractors and landing boats. Our naval vessels opened fire for four solid hours. They pound taro with high explosives. When the ships stopped firing, the Navy planes would take over. Bombing. We were a team working together. And again, according to plan, the planes withdraw and the ship's batteries open up again. The attack is getting close. For three days before we moved in, over four million pounds of explosives had been dropped on the island. It didn't seem possible that anyone could live through that environment. Hulk, machine guns constantly strafed our assault waves. Each time a new crew took over, one of our plane scores a direct hit. As we approach the island, we have the feeling that the show is just about over. There doesn't seem to be any organized resistance. However, we're taking no chances. Suddenly, we're met by heavy machine gun and mortar fire. It takes a heavy toll of our boats and men. It doesn't stop us. The amphibians are extending across the fringing reef, gives protection to a lot of our boys on the way in. On the beach, the jet fire pinches down for hours. The leaves are pretty high, but as we found out later, blood plasma saves a lot of lives. Reinforcements arrive, we start moving up. It isn't easy knocking those jets out of their positions. They're hidden in trees, behind revetments, buried pill boxes, bomb proofs, bunkers. In a lot of places like this, we can never be sure where their snipers are placed. We take it slow, easy. This bunker is giving us plenty of trouble. We have orders to clean it up. Damn amphibians and set up machine guns. Two of us before we got them. The officer of the assault troops confers with his staff. One of our medium tanks remains in operation. At the end of the second day, D plus one, we breed a little easier. Motor squads continue to hammer enemy points of resistance. By this time, we know the Japs are licked. They must know it too. They're still strong resistance. Nip suicide snipers tie themselves up in the trees and take hotshots at us. We hit them, but they don't fall. Just die and hang there. Heavy machine gunfire. In the beach, there's constant activity. Amphibians tow in fresh supplies. Food, ammunition, guns. Moves across the island, the chaplain's assistants tend the dead. Removing the lower identification tag and leaving the duplicate on each marine, so there'll be no mistake later on. Holland Smith and Julian Smith commanding the force and division. Admiral Harry Hill commanding the task force. Sometimes we actually have to dig the Japs out of their holes. The island is infested with buried pillboxes. Many of them still crawling with Japs. These bunkers were so constructed that heavy shelling and demolition charges failed to crumble them. Many of them were over 20 feet deep. Our first prisoners, given first aid in the field and then carried by stretcher to the boats. With them always at the Navy hospital, common and Navy doctors and surgeon. At the transport, the steel litters are lifted from the barges and lowered into the hold. They're taken to the ship's hospital. Not a second is lost. These are marine dead. This is the price we have to pay you for a war we didn't want. And before it's over, we're dead on other battlefields. Burial aboard ship for Marines killed in action. Just to make sure they're not concealing weapons, the prisoners are lined up in their clothes cut away. We gave them new ones later from their own dumps. The rest of the island's defending forces dead. None escaped. Tokyo once boasted that it would cost 100,000 of our men to take tarot. We lost less than a thousand. The Japs over 4,000. A wounded Jap soldier. We took very few of these. Most of our prisoners were Korean laborers. One of our officers captured these Japs from a disabled landing boat. Prisoners carry their own wounded to the pier for evacuation. Captured Jap water. This is the first chance the boys have had to wash since they got on the island. Gunfire from our warships knocked these big guns out early in the bombardment. These were English vickers guns captured by the Japs in Singapore. One of their many light tanks. This was the Jap command post, built of reinforced concrete several feet thick. That building was built to withstand plenty. And did. We finally took it with TNT and flamethrowers. The fighting was still going on at one end of the island when the Seabees landed with their heavy equipment. They set to work clearing the airstrip even while we were fighting for it. After just 24 hours into the Seabees, it started to work. The second one lands one minute later. We welcomed the pilot to our new home. It was our first chance to thank those guys for the swell job they did for us before and during the attack. D plus four, our relief came in. Maybe you think we weren't glad to see them. I guess all of us knew from the first, no matter how tough the going was, that we'd take the island. Just the same the day the colors were run up on this palm tree and flew for the first time over Tarawa. We got a lump in our throats. We were mighty proud. These are the Marines who took Tarawa.