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6. Three Task Forces, Three Brothers
- The University of Alabama Press
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November 22 the carrier suffered another operational loss. Ensign Barrett , piloting his Avenger, returned to the carrier from his antisubmarine patrol only to discover that he couldn’t lower the tail hook of his bomber. Without a tail hook extended to catch the ®ight deck’s arresting cable, there was no hope of landing on the carrier. Wiltsie ordered Barrett to crash-land in the waters of Makin’s lagoon. As Barrett peeled away from Liscome Bay and headed for Makin, the smoke from the ¤ghting on Butaritari’s eastern side still hung thick in the air. Flying in over the lagoon—and hoping there wasn’t a Japanese soldier hiding among the coconut trees waiting to take a shot at him— Barrett smacked his Avenger down on the lagoon’s placid waters. He and his enlisted crewmen clambered out of the sinking TBM and in®ated their life raft. Within moments, an amtrac churned out from the lagoon ’s beach and hauled them aboard. The amtrac then turned and headed back to shore, where Barrett and his crew awaited recovery to Liscome Bay. Barrett soon discovered that the army’s decision to dig in for the night had been a wise one. Shortly after dark, many of the island’s remaining defenders began a series of violent but uncoordinated small-unit attacks, while others attempted to in¤ltrate the three-hundred-yard-long American line of foxholes and improvised palm log barricades. The GIs’ machine guns and Browning automatic ri®es chattered throughout the night, warding off each attack. When morning dawned on November 23, the tired Americans counted ¤fty-one dead Japanese troops in front of their positions. Behind the lines, Barrett longed to return to the “Listing Lizzie.” At 0715 the Americans ashore on Makin resumed their push eastward . Following a spearhead of twenty-one tanks, three companies of the 3rd Battalion quickly mopped up the few remaining Japanese still at large on the eastern end of Butaritari. By 1030 the companies reached the eastern tip of Butaritari. With “Howling Mad” Smith’s criticism still ringing in his ears, a satis¤ed Ralph Smith sent Admiral Turner a succinct message. “Makin taken,” he signaled the commander of Task Force 52. The capture of Makin had cost 66 American lives, with another 152 wounded. The conquest of the atoll came not a moment too soon for the of¤cers 82 / Chapter 5 and men of Liscome Bay. As the GIs ground their way slowly forward across Makin, the men of Carrier Division 24 had a growing sense that their mission was complete. The U.S. ®eet had stolen a surprise march on the Japanese navy with its quick thrust into the Gilberts and had successfully put an overwhelming force ashore on Makin. Now it was time to head back out to sea, where a defense against any enemy counterattacks could be more readily mounted. Rather than slip away to safer waters, however, Liscome Bay was tied down with the rest of the task force waiting for the GIs of the 27th Infantry Division to ¤nish mopping up the last pockets of Japanese defenders on Butaritari. The predictable maneuverings of the carriers and their task force back and forth off Makin were inviting trouble. The Japanese knew they were there. Every evening at sunset, a Japanese Betty would®y high overhead, too high to be reached by an interception of Wildcat¤ghters or a volley of antiaircraft ¤re. Its nightly presence drove tensions even higher on Liscome Bay. “We’re going to get hit,” an upset Mullinnix reportedly announced one evening in the wardroom.13 Despite the tension and the ¤ghting on nearby Makin, life went on for the sailors aboard the jeep carrier in a deceptively routine manner. Seaman Beasley recalled of these days that “for the most part, the operation was routine aboard ship—general quarters, ®ight quarters, planes taking off and landing to take on fuel and ammunition. We seemed to be far removed from the actual battle. We did hear talk of the dif¤culties the Marines were having with the invasion at Tarawa. During the more critical times we spent four hours on watch and four off.”14 During some of those off hours during the morning of November 23, Beasley and his good friend Seaman Third Class Chester R. “Chuck” Williams went topside to sit on the catwalk alongside the ship’s signal ®ag bags. As Beasley read Moby Dick, Williams fell into...