sixfrigates:Remains of 36 unidentified US Marines killed on remote Japanese island in bloody Second
sixfrigates:Remains of 36 unidentified US Marines killed on remote Japanese island in bloody Second World War battle are recovered and returned to America after 72 yearsThe marines remains were found on the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa - an island chain which set the stage for one of the conflict’s bloodiest battles - claiming more than 6,000 lives over three days. They were recovered by a group called History Flight and were flown to Pearl Harbour where a ceremony was carried out yesterday to mark their repatriation.The recovery was the product of a multi-million-dollar, nine-year research project. History Flight, a non-profit organization ‘committed to keeping World War II aviation history alive’ is now working with the military to identify the remains. Once this has been completed, they will be given to the marines families.The Marines invaded Japanese-held Tarawa Atoll in November 1943 where more than 1,000 Americans died and the entire Japanese garrison of 4,500 was obliterated over a three-day battle. Japanese machine-gun fire killed scores of Americans when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the US amphibious assault.Those who made it to the beach faced brutal hand-to-hand combat. Only 17 Japanese troops survived - and of 1,200 Korean slave laborers on the island, just 129 lived.The US quickly buried the thousands of dead on the tiny atoll but the graves were soon disturbed as the Navy urgently built a landing strip to prepare for an attack on the next Pacific island on their path to Tokyo.Around 520 US servicemen are still unaccounted for from the battle. The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the war that the US faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings met little or no initial resistance, but this time the 4,500 Japanese defenders were well-supplied and well-prepared, and they fought almost to the last man.Source -- source link