How the Marines Outsmarted 3,000 Japanese and Took Roi in 7 Hours

Warcharts is now on Spotify, for listening on the go 🎧 https://open.spotify.com/show/2lZCX7R... On February 1, 1944, a Marine division that had never fought a battle landed on Roi, the airfield island of Kwajalein Atoll. Roi and its twin Namur held about 3,000 Japanese. Ten weeks after Tarawa, the 4th Marine Division declared Roi secured at 6:02 p.m., seven hours after W-Hour. This World War II documentary follows the 4th Marine Division's plan for Roi-Namur, built on the lessons of Tarawa: the small islands seized the day before for its artillery, the landing from inside the lagoon, the amphibian tractor chaos that nearly wrecked the timetable, and the tanks that ran so far ahead the division had to call them back. It is told from the Marine Corps' official histories and the men who were there. Also in this video: the 24th Marines on Namur and the blockhouse explosions that killed 20 Marines; the same division's landing on Tinian's two tiny White Beaches while the Japanese watched Tinian Town; and Iwo Jima's Meat Grinder, where the division met a commander who had learned the lesson of the beaches. If a man in your family served with the 4th Marine Division, at Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian or Iwo Jima, tell us his name and his regiment in the comments. Chapters: 0:00 How the Marines Outsmarted Three Thousand Japanese on Roi 1:56 The Plan Built on Tarawa 9:42 Plan Meets Reality 28:24 Namur, the Other Half of the Morning 30:21 The Tractors That Were Not There 43:54 The Longest Night on Namur 55:39 The Beaches Too Small to Use 57:57 The Argument Over Two Small Beaches 1:09:42 Jig-Day 1:24:34 When Japan Stopped Defending the Beach 1:26:28 The Lesson 1:34:55 The Meat Grinder Sources: Lt. Col. Robert D. Heinl Jr. and Lt. Col. John A. Crown, The Marshalls: Increasing the Tempo, ch. 2 (USMC, 1954): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USM... Heinl and Crown, The Marshalls: Increasing the Tempo, ch. 4 (USMC, 1954): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USM... Philip A. Crowl and Edmund G. Love, Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, ch. XVIII (U.S. Army CMH, 1955): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... John C. Chapin, Breaking the Outer Ring: Marine Landings in the Marshall Islands (USMC, 1994): ⁠https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4889... Shaw, Nalty and Turnbladh, Central Pacific Drive, Part III ch. 3 (USMC, 1966): ⁠https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC... Heinl and Crown, The Marshalls: Increasing the Tempo, ch. 5 (USMC, 1954): ⁠https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC... Maj. Carl W. Hoffman, The Seizure of Tinian, ch. 3 (USMC, 1951): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USM... Shaw, Nalty and Turnbladh, Central Pacific Drive, Part V ch. 2 (USMC, 1966): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/III... Richard Harwood, A Close Encounter: The Marine Landing on Tinian (USMC, 1994): ⁠https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4896... Garand and Strobridge, Western Pacific Operations, Part VI ch. 1 (USMC, 1971): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/IV/... Garand and Strobridge, Western Pacific Operations, Part VI ch. 10 (USMC, 1971): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/IV/... Lt. Col. Whitman S. Bartley, Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic, ch. 8 (USMC, 1954): ⁠https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USM... This documentary uses archival film, photographs and the original terminology of the period for historical and educational purposes. It is not intended to glorify war or to offend any person, nation or group. #WW2 #Kwajalein FOOTAGE AND IMAGE SOURCES U.S. National Archives: ⁠https://www.archives.gov⁠ Wikimedia Commons: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org⁠