Rikusentai

One objective the Marines should have captured by D+2 was the junction between Red Beach One and Red Beach Two. But Commander Sugai, second in command on Betio and commander of the Sasebo 7th Rikusentai, had made the area - dubbed the "Pocket" by the Marines - into a …

1943-11-23

BRT04

One objective the Marines should have captured by D+2 was the junction between Red Beach One and Red Beach Two. But Commander Sugai, second in command on Betio and commander of the Sasebo 7th Rikusentai, had made the area - dubbed the "Pocket" by the Marines - into a fortress. Sugai moved his men defending Black Beach to positions covering the Red Beaches during the lulls in the naval bombardment. His troops were the most disciplined, and deadly, men on the island. In the fight for the beachhead the rikusentai -- Japanese Marines -- had disrupted the landings of four battalions. Now on D+3, the Pocket was still not cleared. What remained of 1/8 and 3/2 Marines were against Sugai and his samurai, to atone for the last three days and to finally even the score from Wake Island.

Betio Island, Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was fought on 20–23 November 1943. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll.

American

Japanese

Scenario Type = Standard