How this storied Marine raid came back to bite America

The Raid on Makin Island is one of those operations that Marines point to with pride. The Marine Raiders that carried it out were among the best of the best. It even became the subject of a 1943 movie, Gung Ho!, starring Randolph Scott and Robert Mitchum. That raid was also a strategic blunder that, in a very real sense, screwed over the 2nd Marine Division assigned to take Tarawa about 15 months later.

You may be asking yourself, "how did a successful raid screw over the 2nd Marine Division more than a year down the line?" Well, it's all connected to a series of events put in motion by the end of World War I.

At the end of The Great War, Japan was given the Marshall Islands under a League of Nations mandate. Under Article XIX of the Washington Naval Treaty, these islands (and any other islands in the Pacific) weren't supposed to be fortified. As you might imagine, Japan didn't abide by these terms.

On the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese swept over the Marshal Islands, seizing control, adding these land masses to a collection of Central Pacific claims. Japan quickly fortified both the Gilbert and Marshal Islands. From these bases, they hoped to whittle down the American fleet in the Pacific to the point where their smaller force could win a decisive battle.

U.S. Marine Col. Carlson and his staff consult during training for the Makin raid.

(USMC)

Around the time the United States attacked Guadalcanal, the 2nd Raider Battalion was sent to hit Makin Island. They went in on two submarines, USS Argonaut (SS 166) and USS Nautilus (SS 168). The intent was to gather intel about Japanese forces in the Central Pacific while distracting from Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

The raid went pretty well for the United States Marines. They killed 46 of the enemy, but suffered 30 casualties, including losing nine who became POWs and were later executed.

The Raid on Makin Island prompted the Japanese to reinforce Tarawa, which made landing on that island a very costly affair.

(US Navy)

Although it was tactical success, it had its consequences. It alerted the Japanese to the vulnerability of their bases in the Central Pacific — and they responded with reinforcements. The existing bases were further built up. When the Americans came knocking in November, 1943, the Japanese troops were dug in. Tarawa became a bloody fight.

The fact that nine Marines were left behind, taken prisoner, and later executed was not the worst consequence of the Makin Island raid.

(Photo by Groink)

The United States later returned to Makin Island as part of an island-hopping campaign. During the fighting, the Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE 56) was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese sub, killing 644 American personnel.

In short, the Raid on Makin Island was a big morale boost for the United States, but that early attack exposed weaknesses on a small scale and arguably made the Central Pacific much more costly in the grand scheme of things.