Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa

“The first complete and definitive account of the Battle of Tarawa.”

–Maj. Gen. Mike Ryan, USMC (Ret.)

Navy Cross recipient

Green Beach, Tarawa

On November 20, l943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, five thousand men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the Pentagon parking lots (three-hundred acres!). Before the first day ended, one third of the Marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor. And six-thousand combatants would die.

Now, Col. Joseph Alexander, a combat Marine himself, presents the full story of Tarawa in all its horror and the extreme risks, the horrific combat, and the heroic breakthroughs. Based on exhaustive research, never-before-published accounts from Marine survivors, and new evidence from Japanese sources, Colonel Alexander captures the grit, guts, and relentless courage of United States Marines overcoming outrageous odds to deliver victory for their country.

“Without a doubt the best narrative of the struggle ever produced.”

–Richard B. Frank, Author of Guadalcanal

A MAIN SELECTION OF THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB

Winner of the 1995 General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., Award, awarded to the year’s best nonfiction book pertinent to Marine Corps History

Winner of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Outstanding Writer of the Year, presented by the Navy League of the United States

Winner of the Roosevelt Naval History Prize, awarded by the Naval War College