Tarawa 1944 in color

[Django]

From Google LIFE. Start with this excellent B-25 getting nose art, and continue from there. Wow!!

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... 88666b6f29

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... 8f94a12532

[Jerry O'Neill]

Grteat shot of the B-25G!
Love it!
Jerry

[Jack Cook]

41st BG 7th AF

[jdvoss]

Very nice photos but... are you sure that it is Tarawa?? The photos that I have seen of "post invasion" Tarawa show it to be a rather devastated island. The palm trees seen in the photographs appear to be undisturbed and intact.

[ww2John]

Looking at that second picture (take-off), it makes me feel good to know that even "professional photogrpahers" sometimes can't keep the horizon line straight & level...unless, of course, that B25 is taking off downhill.

Very nice photos but... are you sure that it is Tarawa?? The photos that I have seen of "post invasion" Tarawa show it to be a rather devastated island. The palm trees seen in the photographs appear to be undisturbed and intact.

Good point, it does seem to be the case in this shot:

Wreckage still litters the lagoon next to the new American base on Tarawa, built after a fierce battle with Japanese for control of the island.
Location: Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands 1944 Peter Stackpole

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... 461de0e5ed

[JägerMarty]

Need some P61 pics like that NOW

[Django]

Not sure if it's Tarawa or not, but that's what the descriptions say.

[warbird1]

Need some P61 pics like that NOW

Here's one, but unfortunately it's Black and White:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... 404b079979

[JDK]

Not sure if it's Tarawa or not, but that's what the descriptions say.

I'd not rely on the cataloguing going on the aircraft mis-classifications elsewhere on the LIFE selection.

[Django]

So what island is it then?

[jdvoss]

Looking at the color photos I would have to say that it is indeed a Central Pacific island base that had NOT BEEN WRESTLED from the Japanese. Since the date of the photos is dated 1944 then the B-25's must have been attacking various targets in the Marshall group ( due north) which would place the island base in the Gilberts (now known as Kiribati). Therefore I would conclude that the island may have well be Abemama or Makin ... both USAAF fields.

[jdvoss]

OK, with head hung down in shame and tail between the hind legs this WIX'er has done some further research and indeed the photo may well be taken on Tarawa after all. The photo submitted earlier today from our friend "down under" shows the island base of Betio that was the site of the famous battle and associated airfield. After the battle for Betio was complete the marines then started a sweep of the other islands on Tarawa Atoll. At the extreme east end of Tarawa Atoll is a large island called Bonriki which was not occupied by the enemy. As the field on Betio did not meet the length requirements for the USAAF bombers Bonriki was selected for the USAAF bomber base and was known as Mullinix Field. This field is most probable for the photo site in the Life mag. It still remains today as the Tarawa Airport. According to my reserch book there were two runways constructed. Apparently the NE-SW runway no longer exists.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/ ... nriki.html

Bonriki Airfield (Mullinix Field)

After Betio was occupied by the Marines, and its airfield operational, Bonriki airfield was put in at Bonriki also running E-W, and a second runway NE-SW. Longer than Betio's Hawkins Field, it was better for large B-24 bombers.

The Bonriki airfield also named "Mullinix" after Admiral Mullinix, KIA on the escort carrier CVE-56 USS Liscome Bay sunk off (Makin) Butaritari during the US Army invasion taking place at the same time as the Tarawa battle.

Also, 7th AF B-25s operated from this strip before moving up to Makin (Butaritari), airfield.

Today

The airfield is still in use, with two runways with two passenger and one cargo terminals and serves flights for Air Kiribati, Air Marshall Isles, Air Nauru, Air Pacific

Stan Gajda reports:

"At Bonriki, many large revetments for B-24's were built. Even to this day there is still a lot of debris of operations there, like bomb transport rings, bomb tail fin cases etc. In the revetments it is easy to find fired .50 and .30 cal mg cases thrown out of planes when they were cleaned during operations."

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/ ... index.html

American Units Based at Tarawa Airfield
VF-1 from USS Barnes and Nassau land on Nov 25, 1943
41st BG HQ from Hickam Dec 17, 1943 - April 24, 1944 to Makin
41st BG, 396th BS (B-25) from Hickam Dec 24, 1943 - ?
41st BG, 820th BS (B-25) from Hickam Dec 24, 1943 - April 27, 43 to Makin
7th AF HQ from Funafuti Dec 30, 1943 - March 25, 1944 to Kwajalein
11th BG, 431st BS (B-24) from Funafuti Jan 16, 1944 - ?
11th BG, 26th BS (B-24) Nukufetau Jan 25, 1944 - April 14, 1944 to Kwajalein
11th BG, 98th BS (B-24) ? - April 4, 1944 to Eniwetok
11th BG HQ ? - April 5, 1944 to Kwajalein
28th BG, 77th BS (B-25) from Amchitka February 11, 1944 - ?

[Django]

Just saw a segment on ABC news about a WWII Marine vet, Leon Cooper who is campaigning the state department to go back and bring home the hundred or so Marines that are still there. They showed him at the beach he stormed today, and it is basically a garbage dump. He was pretty disgusted by it.