On this date in history in 1943, the WWII Battle of Tarawa began. The three-day battle for Tarawa in the Central Pacific was the first major trial by fire for the new Marine doctrine of forcible amphibious assault from the sea against a fortified island. Tarawa's coral reef, a barrier to the Navy's landing boats, posed a serious problem. To land the initial attack forces across the reef, the Marines converted their tracked "Alligator" cargo-haulers - civilian rescue vehicles designed to perform

Battle of Tarawa

Battle of Tarawa