The Pacific War and Operation Galvanic
During the Pacific War the United States Marine Corps landed on Funafuti on October 2, 1942. The Japanese had already occupied Tarawa and other islands in what is now Kiribati, but were delayed by the losses at the Battle of the Coral Sea. A Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees) built a sea plane ramp on the lagoon side of Funafuti for seaplane operations by both short and long range seaplanes and compacted coral runways were constructed at Funafuti, with satellites airfields on both Nanumea and Nukufetau. Building the runway at Funafuti involved the loss of land used for growing pulaka and taro with extensive excavation of coral from what are still known as the borrow pits. The runway continues in use today as Funafuti International Airport.
The Seabees also blasted an opening in the reef at Nanumea, which became known as the 'American Passage'.
While Funafuti suffered air attacks during 1943, casualties were limited, although on one occasion on 23 April 1943, 680 people took refuge in the concrete walled, pandanus-thatched church. Fortunately Corporal B. F. Ladd, an American soldier, persuaded them to get into dugouts, as a bomb struck the building shortly after.
USAAF B-24 Liberator bombers of the Seventh Air Force and the 331 Marine Scout Bombing Squadron operated from Tuvalu. The atolls of Tuvalu acted as a staging post during the preparation for the Battle of Tarawa and the Battle of Makin that commenced on 20 November 1943, which was the implementation of operation 'Galvanic'.
Read more about this topic: History Of Tuvalu
Famous quotes containing the words pacific, war, operation and/or galvanic:
“The doctor of Geneva stamped the sand
That lay impounding the Pacific swell,
Patted his stove-pipe hat and tugged his shawl.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or, would you prosecute it in future, with elderstalk squirts, charged with rose water?”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“‘Come, walk like this,’ the dancer said,
‘Stick you your toes—stick in your head,
Stalk on with quick, galvanic tread—
Your fingers thus extend;
The attitude’s considered quaint,’”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)