Leonard Elias Kristal

PFC Leonard Kristal served with the Regimental Weapons Company of the 2nd Marines. His unit was equipped with 37mm anti-tank guns, self-propelled 75mm guns (mounted on halftracks) and an assortment of machine guns, bazookas, and supporting equipment. Unfortunately, Kristal’s specialty is not known.

On 20 November 1943, PFC Kristal disembarked from the USS Zeilin and boarded a landing craft in the Tarawa lagoon. His squad was assigned to support the attack of Second Battalion, 2nd Marines, against Betio’s Beach Red 2. The assault waves came under heavy fire as they approached the beach; some landing craft swerved off course and wound up on Beach Red 1, while others were disabled or destroyed in the water. Heavier weapons landed in later waves, but still suffered casualties to men and equipment on their way to shore.

This amphibious landing was Kristal’s first experience in combat – and would prove to be his last. The battle was so chaotic that conflicting reports of his death were received: primary sources disagreed as to whether he was killed by a bullet to the head or to the abdomen, or if he lost his life on November 20 or 21. However, there was no ambiguity about his burial location. With an unusual degree of specificity, Weapons Company reported Kristal’s burial as “next to Japanese cement mixer near Hawkins’ Field, Betio.”