A map of positions on Betio, in the Tarawa atoll in the central Pacific, a day after the US landing, November 21, 1943. US Marine Corps/Wikimedia Commons ...

Cooper, 89, was a young Navy ensign who was commander of a group of landing craft that ferried U.S. 2nd Marine Division troops to Red Beach during the November 1943 invasion.

The Tarawa-class LHAs and Wasp-class LHDs provide the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement by helicopter in addition to movement by landing craft.

Sixty years ago today, thousands of U.S. Marines and a handful of sailors began landing on the Pacific equatorial island chain of Tarawa. The primary objective was an airstrip, which was ultimately… ...

The Marines landing at Tarawa Island had high hopes for a quick and easy victory. It was November 20, 1943 and for several days before the planned attack Marines had witnessed special task forces ...

The Battle of Tarawa ... Betio in the Gilbert Islands at Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, was for a landing field for American forces to support operations to the Philippines and into Japan.

WWII veteran is fighting to restore site of bloody battle, now a garbage dump. Dec. 18, 2008— -- Tarawa...bloody Tarawa. Sixty-five years after the battle there, Leon Cooper, a World War II ...

The Battle of Tarawa was fought for 76 hours between Nov. 20 and 23, 1943. What follows is a selection of photographs from the fighting, as captured by American photographers.

They knew that the most concentrated bombing and shelling in history would precede their landing: almost 1,000 tons of aerial bombs, plus 1.500 tons of shellfire, on Betio’s crowded, scant ...

%embed1% As you prepare for Memorial Day observances this weekend, you might want to check out Return to Tarawa, showing free online this weekend courtesy of SnagFilms. Filmmaker Steven C. Barber ...