Reported Burials
1944
Remains Recovered
1946
Remains Recovered
2015
Unidentified Remains
2021
Unaccounted For
2021
Red Three, the easternmost of Betio’s assault beaches, was the target of the Second Battalion, 8th Marines on 20 November 1943. Although not quite so heavily defended as Red One and Red Two, Red Three presented a formidable challenge: bunkers and pillboxes and anti-boat guns unleashed a sheet of fire at the slow-moving amphibious tractors waddling to shore. One vehicle took a direct hit and exploded; “arms and legs were flying through the air,” recalled corpsman Stanley Bowen. Most tractors dropped their men in the surf, while a few managed to clamber ashore. As they jumped over the sides, Marines were surprised to find they could see the ocean on the far side of narrow Betio. However, the Japanese defense in depth made advancing impossible. Bill Ashley of Easy Company, 8th Marines, provides a brief yet graphic snapshot of coming ashore:
“Our tractor was hit going in, had a hole above the water line. Water was pouring in. Lieutenant [Thomas P.] Perkins gave the order to remove helmets and bail water. We did and got to the beach, but not over the sea wall. We had one man killed going over the side, Howard E. Ragsdale, and another was wounded…. We immediately set up our mortars. Our section leader, Sgt. Fae V. Moore, started over the wall to locate a target. He was killed instantly.”
The Third Battalion, 8th Marines landed in support and were also badly mauled – much to the horror of the men ashore, who could do little to help. For the next two days, the Marines were largely confined to the narrow beach. Correspondent Robert Sherrod wrote that “the drama of life and death was being enacted all around me. Men were being killed and wounded every minute…. The number of dead lined up beside the stalled headquarters amphtrac grew steadily.” Finally, on D-plus-2, the 8th Marines and their supporting units managed to crack the stubborn defenses and reached the opposite side of the island.
This burial site – known initially as “Division Cemetery 3,” indicating its sequence with “Cemetery 1” and “Cemetery 2” to the west – was a long bulldozed trench a few yards inland from the beach. Collection of remains began on 22 November 1943, and continued through the end of the battle. Among those buried here was 1Lt. Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman of the 18th Marines, whose assault on a massive Japanese bunker helped break the defensive cordon trapping the Marines on the beach. Bonnyman’s action was captured in photographs and film; his family later received his posthumous Medal of Honor.
Marine Corps and Navy casualty cards show twenty-nine men buried in “Division Cemetery #3.” The 2nd Marine Division’s Graves Registration Section list from early 1944 differs somewhat: the cemetery is called “8th Marines Cemetery #2,” and forty individuals are reported – of whom 24 were named, and 16 unidentified. This list changed the burial locations of PFC James Mansfield, Pvt. Emmett Kines, PFC James Reilly, PFC John MacDonald, and Sgt. Fae Moore – without apparent cause. Both sources implied a single row of graves. However, the true layout of the cemetery – and the names of those interred – would not be confirmed for more than seven decades.
In choosing locations for the monument cemeteries, Gould had to consider the needs of his command. Hawkins Field was an important stepping stone in the advance across the Pacific: American aircraft were able to land on Betio while the Marines were still securing the island, and squadrons were able to stage out of the airfield within a few weeks. Bombers from Hawkins Field and elsewhere in the atoll carried out vital missions attacking targets in the Marshall Islands – all in aid of planned amphibious assaults in 1944. Keeping the field operating at its peak was vital to the war effort, and helped justify the terrible cost in lives to take Betio in the first place.
Thus, when faced with the choice between preserving exact burial locations and building needed infrastructure, Gould always chose the latter. While the other monument cemeteries could be built close to (or on top of) the original graves, Monument Cemetery 27 had to be relocated by more than 300 feet. The plaque on the monument stated that the named men fell and were buried “near this site,” but “near” would prove not close enough.
Under the plan set forth by Island Commander Erl C. B. Gould in early 1944, the former “8th Marines Cemetery #2” was replaced by a monument similar to those that rose above the reconstructed Cemeteries 10, 13, and 20. All original markers were taken down in favor of a massive wooden cross bordered by palm logs and chain fencing. The twenty-four names provided by Marine Corps Graves Registration graced a hand-painted tablet, along with an acknowledgement of the sixteen unknowns. Under the new Navy numbering system, the spot was designated Monument Cemetery 27. Work was completed in March or April 1944.
The air base grew quickly, and soon Cemetery 27 stood in the middle of a heavily trafficked area. Just to the south sat an access road and a Hawkins Field taxiway; to the north lay the repaired and rebuilt piers and boat pool. Garrison troops would gather in a nearby Quonset hut to watch training films and any Hollywood flicks arriving from the States.
Cemetery 27 was the third monument grave tackled by the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company. Based on their recent findings in Cemetery 10 and Cemetery 13, the team tore down the cross and dug up the ground around the monument. Several days of effort resulted in a seven-foot-deep hole – but no remains.
Chagrined by this failure, the 604th expanded their search area. “Explorative excavations were started throughout the area,” noted 1Lt. Isadore Eisensmith. “At the same time trenches were started in front of the four large Quonsets in the area around the boat basin, but all of this work was in vain…. The area around the barber shop and the area along both sides of the road was dug up but no remains, no remnants of equipment, nor any other debris that would have indicated a burial place were located.” Chaplains Kelly and O’Neill climbed up an old Japanese observation tower, presumably to try and get their bearings, but the island had changed so much since the battle that this effort also proved fruitless.
The Cemetery 27 crew tore up the ground around the boat basin for two and a half weeks. Finally, Lieutenant Eisensmith told them to give it up. “In view of the negative results of the searches, it was felt that this was only a memorial site and there was no value in continuing the search in that area,” he wrote. Operations on Betio were winding down, and Eisensmith told the Cemetery 27 men to start filling in the open excavations. Although giving up was galling, the lieutenant’s instinct was correct: there really were no remains near the monument – nor had there ever been.
Kristen and John had fully exposed the remains in Grave #8, carefully removing and wrapping every bone, fragment, and piece of material evidence – the rubber soles of boondockers, the standard-issue Marine combat boots; shreds of sock; ammunition clips; and more – in aluminum foil before placing it into large plastic evidence bags.
Like all but three of the Marines buried in Cemetery 27, PFC James Mansfield was killed on the first day of fighting but wasn’t buried until several days later. Given the advanced state of decomposition, burial details simply wrapped remains in ponchos, apparently making little or no effort to remove gear or personal items.
The soles of Mansfield’s boots seemed so human and awoke me to the reality of what lay before me.
The first serious effort to locate the original site of Cemetery 27 began with the non-profit group History Flight in 2006. After much detailed research, the organization sent a team to Betio with a ground-penetrating radar to examine the general area of the old boat basin. This effort revealed not one, but two potential burial trenches beneath a shipping yard. In 2010, the identification of Private Herman Fred Sturmer (F/2/8th Marines) indicated that additional American remains were likely present in the area. (Sturmer’s bones were found near the shipyard in 2002.) Additional work on the island – including the use of a cadaver dog, interviewing locals, and liaisons with JPAC – narrowed down the location, and in March of 2015 a team of archaeologists began excavations at the shipyard.
History Flight’s team uncovered a burial trench near spot where Sturmer had been found, and soon identified the remains of Cpl. Roger Keith Nielson. Like Sturmer, Nielson had been reported as missing after the battle; he had no known association with Cemetery 27. Continued excavation uncovered five more remains, later identified as Sgt. James Joseph Hubert, PFC Larry Ronald Roberts, PFC Ben Hadden Gore, PFC Raymond Warren, and Pvt. Robert Junior Carter. None of these men were originally reported as buried in Cemetery 27; in fact, Roberts and Gore were supposed to be in the West and East Division Cemeteries, respectively. The History Flight team designated this burial feature as “Row B” of Cemetery 27.
Interestingly, a map provided with PFC Gore’s military files gives a clear picture of the original site of Cemetery 27. Gore and Roberts, members of the 2nd Defense Battalion, died in a firefight with Japanese stragglers on 25 November 1943. Their unit reported burial “in unnumbered plot near scene of death.” (How Marine GRS decided they were in two entirely different cemeteries is a mystery.)
In May of 2015, the main burial trench of Cemetery 27 was finally located. History Flight eventually recovered 38 of the 40 remains originally reported buried in the larger grave – even extending their excavation under a building which had to be raised on stilts. Unfortunately, prior construction work or other disturbances resulted in damage to – or destruction of – some of the remains. The History Flight evidence revealed that the USMC Casualty Cards were more accurate than the Graves Registration List: Mansfield, Kines, Reilly, MacDonald, and Moore were all found in Cemetery 27. They also identified several of the original unknowns, including Cpl. James D. Otto, Cpl. Walter G. Critchley, Pvt. Donald S. Spayd, PFC Wilbur C. Mattern, PFC James O. Whitehurst, and PFC Louis Wiesehan, Jr. The partial remains of PFC Edward Nalazek were even associated with bones found on Betio in 1967 and stored in Hawaii for the intervening decades.
As of 2021, three of the forty men are still unidentified, while one has been provisionally identified but has not yet been officially accounted for. The remains of two others have not been recovered.
