Louis Earl Curry

Louis Curry, a long-serving Regular Marine, served as a non-commissioned officer with Mike Company, 8th Marines during the Guadalcanal campaign. He was offered a commission in the summer of 1943, and took command of a heavy machine gun platoon in How Company before the battle of Tarawa.

The amphibious assault on Betio, Tarawa atoll – Operation GALVANIC – commenced on 20 November 1943. The Second Battalion 8th Marines was given the job of assaulting the easternmost of three landing beaches – “Red 3” – and, once ashore, moving inland to quickly secure the airfield that covered much of the tiny island’s surface. A heavy and morale-boosting naval bombardment convinced many Marines that the task would be a simple one, and spirits were high at 0900 when their amphibious tractors started paddling for the beach.

The Japanese were quick to recover. Shells began bursting over the LVTs. “As the tractors neared the shore the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3-inch guns,” notes A Brief History of the 8th Marines. “Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach, battle losses increased dramatically.” Most of the beach defenses were still intact, and these were supported by row after row of pillboxes, rifle pits, and machine gun nests.

In Bloody Tarawa, author Eric Hammel relates that Lieutenant Curry got to shore alive and wound up in a trench with 1Lt. Robert Rogers, commanding E/2/8th Marines. Rogers, along with approximately twenty men, managed to advance across the taxi apron inland from Red Beach 3, and took shelter in a trench beside a building. Several hours passed; Rogers sent two runners back for reinforcements, but none arrived. Finally, Rogers placed Curry in command of the trench and headed back to the beach himself.

Unfortunately, there are no known accounts from the occupants of the trench – and so the details of how Lieutenant Curry died are a mystery. He was killed in action on 21 November 1943 (D-plus-One) at an unknown location. Although he was reportedly buried the following day, no burial details were recorded.