Moving off the ramp of a Coast Guard-manned landing craft, Marines move ashore onto Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands group, north-east of Australia, Central Pacific ocean. America's heavy bombardment of the island paved the way for the US to make significant gains in the area and forced Japanese forces to flee one island at a time  


Coming ashore

A group of fighters, led by a Marine with a wounded hand, charging from the shore around opened barbed-wire entanglement to battle firmly entrenched Japanese troops in pillboxes on Tarawa atoll, Gilbert Islands, north-east of Australia; 21 November, 1943. 
