Clyde Ross Williams

PFC Clyde Williams served with Company A, First Battalion, 8th Marines during the Guadalcanal campaign and in the battle for Tarawa.

At midday on 20 November 1943, BLT 1-8 climbed over the sides of their transport ships and boarded LCVPs in Tarawa lagoon. They anticipated imminent landing orders, but due to the desperate situation on the beach were held offshore in their little boats, bobbing in the waves for the rest of the day and a very long night. Early on 21 November, they were ordered to land on Betio’s Beach Red 2.

At 0615, the first waves of 1-8 rushed down the ramps and into the breaking surf on a coral reef some 500 yards from shore. Although friendly troops held the water’s edge, they “immediately came under heavy machine gun fire from both flanks.” The battalion was decimated on the long walk to shore. An action report penned by the 8th Marines noted that “many of the casualties resulted from drowning, due to the heavy packs and equipment men attempted to take across the submerged fringing reef.”

PFC Williams survived the landing and a full day of combat, but did not live to see the end of the battle. He was initially reported as wounded in action, but this error was quickly corrected to missing in action. Nothing further was ever learned of his whereabouts or fate, and Williams was ultimately declared dead as of 22 November 1943.