U.S. Marines defeat Japanese on South Pacific Tarawa Island. U.S.

U.S. Marines defeat Japanese on South Pacific Tarawa Island. U.S. marines, crouched behind sandbags and amid the devastation and smoke of battle, prepare to advance in the offensive that captured the strategic Japanese air base on Tarawa and the adjoining South Pacific Gilbert Islands of Makin and Abemama. The Gilbert Islands offensive, in which 5.700 Japanese were killed or captured, was an important step in Allied military operations to strip Japan of all territory she has acquired by force. NI 9205