Original Item: Only One Available. During the first year of the war the Cartographic Division expanded more rapidly than any other division as a result of the need for compilation and drafting for the revision of old maps and the construction of new maps. During that year many large projects for the compilation of air navigation, plotting, pilotage, and target charts were initiated.

This map, which was more than likely traced while in the field, is of Tarawa Atoll and dated November 30, 1944, almost exactly one year after the infamous Battle of Tarawa. The map is in good condition with much of the original colored pencil colors still visible and all writing still legible. There is no significant damage but there is age toning present and the paper used for the map feels somewhat brittle.

Comes more than ready for display!

The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll.

The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings met little or no initial resistance, but on Tarawa the 4,500 Japanese defenders were well-supplied and well-prepared, and they fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the United States Marine Corps. The losses on Tarawa were incurred within 76 hours.

War Correspondent Robert Sherrod wrote:

“Last week some 2,000 or 3,000 United States Marines, most of them now dead or wounded, gave the nation a name to stand beside those of Concord Bridge, the Bonhomme Richard, the Alamo, Little Bighorn, and Belleau Wood. The name was Tarawa.”
— Robert Sherrod, "Report On Tarawa: Marines' Show" Time magazine war correspondent, 6 December 1943

Over one hundred of the Americans killed were never repatriated. In November 2013, the remains of one American and four Japanese were recovered from "what was considered a pristine site preserving actual battlefield conditions and all remains found as they fell."

The remains of 36 Marines, including 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr., were interred in a battlefield cemetery whose location was lost by the end of the war. The cemetery was located in March 2015. On 26 July 2015, the bodies were repatriated to the United States, arriving at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam in Honolulu Hawaii.

In March, 2019 a mass grave of Marines, reportedly from the 6th Marine Regiment, was discovered on Tarawa. The remains of 22 Marines recovered from the mass grave arrived at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii on 17 July 2019.