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Much has been written about LtCol Evans Carlson and his 2d Raider Battalion's raid on Makin Island in August of 1942. This account by two of the participants on the scene those fateful days provides an overview of the 2-day battle and an eyewitness account by the lead fire team leader going ashore that first day.
On 17 August 1942, I was PFC Brian J. Quirk, USMCR, and I was proud to be a fighting member of the 2d Platoon, Company B, of LtCol Evans Fordyce Carlson's 2d Raider Battalion, ready to make the raid on the Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands chain. We had about 221 well-trained Marines in 2 companies, and we were ready to do battle with the Japanese.
The battalion's mission was to destroy enemy forces and installations on the island, gain information on the enemy and take prisoners, and primarily create a diversion to confuse the Japanese and divert possible reinforcements of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, attacked by Marine forces 10 days earlier.
We were transported to the Makin Atoll area by two submarines, the USS Nautilus and the USS Argonaut. My company came in on the Nautilus. We had a good plan. We were supposed to go ashore in the predawn hours of 17 August, achieving the element of surprise. Then we would destroy the Japanese on Butaritari Island on the atoll and achieve all of our objectives. We only had enough ammunition for the 1 day as we were limited to what we could carry ashore with us. We would accomplish the mission and then go back aboard the submarines before the Japanese reinforced Butaritari the next day. If we were successful the first day, we would then attack Little Makin Island on the second day. (See map.)
We had trained for the launching of the rubber boats at Barbers Point in Hawaii by having the submarines submerge. It worked well in Hawaii. It didn't at Makin. The unexpected hit us with terrible weather. The night was pitch black, and we had to deal with wind, a driving rain, and rough sea swells of up to 15 feet. Boats had to be individually launched from each of the submarines, and it seemed that confusion reigned supreme. LtCol...