---
title: Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign: The US Island-Hopping Advance in the Pacific
author: Mark Cartwright
source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert_and_Marshall_Islands_Campaign/
format: machine-readable-alternate
license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
updated: 2026-08-26
---

# Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign: The US Island-Hopping Advance in the Pacific

_Authored by [Mark Cartwright](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/markzcartwright/)_

The Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign (November 1943 to February 1944), a key strategic step forward in WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/), saw US forces launch multiple amphibious landings against Japanese-held islands and coral atolls in Micronesia. Victory came at a high price in casualties, but the campaign further secured the US's supply lines in the South Seas and enclosed [Japan](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Japan/) within the western half of the Pacific. US forces could now launch attacks on Japan's main naval base at Truk Atoll and begin to push Japan back to its home islands.

### Coral Atolls & Pacific Archipelagoes

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British colony (today they are the independent states of Kiribati and Tuvalu). They are composed of 16 atolls (Gilbert) and nine islands (Ellice). The Marshall Islands, consisting of 29 coral atolls, had been part of the German [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/) until taken over by Japan as part of the peace settlement that formally ended the First World War (1914-18). During the Second World War (1939-45), Japan built military bases in both the Gilbert atolls and the Marshall Islands (but did not occupy the Ellice Islands located further south).

Seeking revenge for the Japanese [attack on Pearl Harbor](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2954/the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/) in December 1941, US bombers and naval ships had attacked these islands in February 1942, an operation known as the Marshalls–Gilberts Raids. The attacks had been part of a wider strategy to bomb Japanese bases across the Pacific. Japan's massive expansion in the Pacific was then halted at the [Battle of the Coral Sea](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2957/battle-of-the-coral-sea/) in May 1942. US forces followed this up by inflicting a heavy defeat on the Imperial Japanese Navy at the [Battle of Midway](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2964/battle-of-midway/) in June. Another important US victory was gained in the [Guadalcanal Campaign](https://www.worldhistory.org/Guadalcanal_Campaign/) in the [Solomon](https://www.worldhistory.org/solomon/) Islands, fought between August 1942 and February 1943.

The US was now anxious to complete its domination of the Central Pacific, from Australia to the Midway Atoll, by launching an amphibious landing on the remaining Japanese territories held in this region: the Gilbert and Ellice Island group (Operation Galvanic) and the Marshall Islands (Operations Flintlock and Catchpole). If the US could grab these islands, the Japanese would be contained within the western half of the Pacific and US supply lines stretching back to Australia would be secured. The strategy has often been called 'island-hopping,' since US forces would first attack and capture one island group and then use that group as an air and naval base to attack another archipelago. If all went to plan, then, in this way, the US would capture the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, the outer Japanese islands, and then, the ultimate goal, the main islands of Japan.

[ ![Map of Japanese Expansion in Asia & the Pacific, 1875–1942](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/750x750/21959.png?v=1787208143-1787208162) Map of Japanese Expansion in Asia & the Pacific, 1875–1942 Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21959/map-of-japanese-expansion-in-asia--the-pacific-187/ "Map of Japanese Expansion in Asia & the Pacific, 1875–1942")### Invading the Gilbert Islands

The most northerly island in the Gilbert groups, Makin Island, had been attacked in August 1942 by US special forces. The 222 raiders, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Evans Carlson, achieved secrecy by arriving by submarine, and the attack did initially seem a success. However, in response to the raid, the Japanese then fortified and reinforced a garrison at nearby Tarawa Atoll. One year later, this bulked-up garrison caused havoc amongst the US Marines trying to capture the atoll as part of the wider Gilbert Campaign.

The Battle of Tarawa Atoll became one of the epic struggles of the Pacific War. Part of the US Pacific Fleet approached the Gilbert Islands in November 1943; the impressive task force was made up of ten aircraft carriers with a formidable escort of battleships and cruisers. Around 4,800 of Japan's best troops had secreted themselves in a bewildering network of concealed defences, especially on the main island of Betio. The more lightly defended Makin and Apamama islands were taken over, the former assaulted by 7,000 US troops. One US escort carrier was sunk by a Japanese submarine off Makin. Betio in Tarawa proved a much harder nut to crack. Accordingly, the US commanders planned to send in 18,000 troops.

In command of the Japanese defences at Betio was Rear-Admiral Shibasaki Keiji, and he was so confident he stated that not even a million men taking 100 years would be able to penetrate his defensive system. He had organised the reef and lagoon to be strewn with wood and concrete obstacles, the beach and shallows had more log obstacles and reams of barbed wire, and inland, the defenders were protected by bunkers and tunnels made of thick palm logs and concrete. The troops were equipped with rifles, machine guns, grenades, and a battery of 8-inch (20.3 mm) artillery. After the battle, the US Army's official history of the Gilbert Campaign agreed with Shibasaki Keiji: “With the possible exception of Iwo Jima, its beaches were better protected against a landing force than any encountered in any theater of war” (Marston, 164).

[ ![US Marines Attack Tarawa, 1943](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/500x600/22042.jpg?v=1787035927-1787036095) US Marines Attack Tarawa, 1943 USMC Archives (CC BY) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22042/us-marines-attack-tarawa-1943/ "US Marines Attack Tarawa, 1943")### Battle of Tarawa

It was true that the initial naval bombardment of the island and attacks from the air did little damage to the Japanese positions, despite the firing of 3,000 tons of ordnance by the US ships alone. In the two-and-a-half-hour attack, Japanese lines of communication were disrupted, and this did have the consequence that the defenders could not properly coordinate themselves into an immediate counterattack. The Japanese Combined Fleet could not respond to the attack since it was at that time engaged further south in the fighting in the Solomon Islands and Papua.

The bombardment of Tarawa was immediately followed up on 20 November with an amphibious assault by US Marines led by Major-General Julian Smith. The troops were landed using, for the first time in the war, armoured LVTs (Land Vehicles, Tracked), which climbed out of the water and propelled themselves up the beaches using their caterpillar tracks. 14 Sherman tanks were also landed, but these, and the LVTs, were not sufficient in number to counter the force specifically amassed by Shibasaki Keiji to meet this threat to his island fortress. The Shermans were here making their debut in the Pacific War, but it was not a successful one, as several sank in flooded craters, drowning their crews, and several more were too easy a target for Japanese gunners. Another problem for the attackers was that the tides had been incorrectly calculated. With landing craft stuck in the water on the reefs and men obliged to wade ashore across the lagoon, the concealed Japanese gunners inflicted heavy casualties on the Marines.

By day two of the battle, the Marines were able to occupy and hold the southern part of the beach and to hold a pocket at the western end of the island. Reinforcements were landed in this western area on the third day, and the troops here slowly worked their way towards the eastern end of the island. As usual, the resistance of the Japanese, who considered surrender a disgrace, was intense, even if the defensive pockets were isolated from each other.

The fighting became concentrated at the eastern end of the island, and here the defenders made one last desperate charge at the invaders. This type of last-chance infantry charge was known as a *banzai* attack, from the battle cry *Tenno heika banzai* ('Long Live the Emperor'), and its participants typically adopted an attitude of suicidal neglect of both the opposition's numbers and their material advantages. The Japanese counterattack was turned, and on 23 November 1943, US forces finally took control of Tarawa.

The cost of victory had been high and brought home to the US public back home the deadly toll of this war in the paradise islands of the Pacific. US forces at Tarawa suffered over 3,100 casualties (including 1,009 killed). All of this to capture 3 square miles (8 square kilometres) of land. The Japanese force had died to a man; there were only 17 Japanese survivors, along with 129 Korean labourers.

In October, US forces also established a base on the previously unoccupied (militarily speaking) Ellice Islands. Following the success in the Gilbert & Ellice landings, the US navy and army could now, earlier than anticipated, pounce upon their next target.

### Invading the Marshall Islands

In the next phase of the island-hopping strategy, on 30 January 1944, a US amphibious landing force headed towards the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. The problem here had been to decide which of the many, distinctly separated islands to attack. The Japanese had the very same problem in deciding where to concentrate their defences.

[ ![US Strikes on Engebi, 1944](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/500x600/22044.jpg?v=1787040489-1787040615) US Strikes on Engebi, 1944 US Navy (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22044/us-strikes-on-engebi-1944/ "US Strikes on Engebi, 1944")The US force assembled to attack the Marshall Islands was composed of almost 300 ships carrying 85,000 men. Landing on Majuro Atoll, Kwajalein Atoll, and the islets of Roi-Namur between 31 January and 2 February, two divisions of US Marines met little resistance, since, as was known to US military intelligence, the Japanese forces had been moved to the outer islands of the archipelago. Indeed, these Japanese positions were briefly attacked from the air but then simply bypassed and left to their own isolated devices – they did not, in fact, surrender until August 1945. Avoiding concentrations of enemy forces and striking at weak spots became a persistent policy of General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), Supreme Commander in the Southwest Pacific, who described the strategy as "hitting 'em where they ain't" (Dear, 26).

Two weeks later, the US hopped onto another island group. Following a naval and air bombardment, five US battalions landed to seize Eniwetok Atoll (later called Enewetak) on 17 February. The US force, a combination of army infantry and Marines, had to expel around 3,500 Japanese soldiers spread across three islands. Learning valuable lessons from the amphibious assault on Tarawa, each island was attacked in turn.

The US Navy had kept most of the Japanese Navy out of this operation. A US carrier fleet attacked the main Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific at Truk Atoll (modern name: Chuuk Lagoon) in the Caroline Islands. Also launched on 17 February 1944, Operation Hailstone involved a bombing raid using radar guidance. This was the first instance of this technology in the Pacific War. Unfortunately for the attackers, the main ships of Japan's Combined Fleet had already left the lagoon – US control of the Gilbert Islands was deemed too great a threat to remain there – but the raid did destroy 265 aircraft, sank 140,000 tons of shipping, and rendered the naval base inoperable. Meanwhile, by the morning of 23 February, after five days of heavy fighting, the Marshall Islands had been secured for the US.

[ ![1946 Nuclear Test, Bikini Atoll](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/750x750/22043.jpg?v=1787039495-1787039561) 1946 Nuclear Test, Bikini Atoll US Department of Defense (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22043/1946-nuclear-test-bikini-atoll/ "1946 Nuclear Test, Bikini Atoll")### Aftermath

The success in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign meant US forces had acquired ahead of schedule a strategically useful harbour for future operations, and they could now attack key Japanese bases further north. As the Japanese fought tenaciously from island to island, steadily retreating to their home islands, there were many more bloody and brutal encounters still to come such as the Battle of Saipan and Battle of Guam in the Mariana Islands in mid-1944, the Battle of Iwo Jima and Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, and then the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which finally brought Japan's surrender in August 1945.

Meanwhile, back in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, the British administration was restored in November 1944. The islands achieved independence in 1971, but the two groups later split, with the Ellice group becoming Tuvalu in 1978 and the Gilbert group becoming Kiribati in 1979. The US managed the Marshall Islands as a trust under the auspices of the United Nations after the war, and they became a testing ground for nuclear weapons. The islands, by then with many atolls heavily contaminated, were awarded independence in 1979 as the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

#### Editorial Review

This human-authored definition has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our [editorial policy](https://www.worldhistory.org/static/editorial-policy/).

## Bibliography

- [Battle of Tarawa WWII 2](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/watch/battle-tarawa-wwii-2 "Battle of Tarawa WWII 2"), accessed 18 Aug 2026.
- [Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. *The Oxford Companion to World War II.* Oxford University Press, 1995.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0198662254/)
- [Horner, David. *Second World War The Pacific.* Osprey Publishing, 2002.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/1841762296/)
- [Liddell Hart, B. H. *A History of the Second World War.* Pan, 2026.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/1447266927/)
- [Marston, Daniel. *Pacific War.* Osprey Publishing, 2010.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/1849083827/)
- [Smurthwaite, David. *The Pacific War Atlas 1941-1945.* Facts on File, 2000.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0816032858/)

## About the Author

Mark is WHE’s Publishing Director and has an MA in Political Philosophy (University of York). He is a full-time researcher, writer, historian and editor. Special interests include art, architecture and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share.

## Timeline

- **Oct 1943 CE**: US forces establish a base in the Ellice Islands during WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/).
- **Nov 1943 CE - Feb 1944 CE**: The Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign in WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/).
- **20 Nov 1943 CE - 23 Nov 1943 CE**: [Battle](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/battle/) of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands during WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/). US victory over Japanese forces.
- **30 Jan 1944 CE - 2 Feb 1944 CE**: The US launches an amphibious assault on the Marshall Islands in WWII"s Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/).
- **17 Feb 1944 CE**: US forces attack and occupy Eniwetok Atoll in WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/). At the same time, US naval forces attack the Japanese base at Truk.
- **23 Feb 1944 CE**: The US gains control of the Marshall Islands from [Japan](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Japan/) in WWII's Pacific [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/).

## External Links

- [Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-pacific/gilbert-marshall-islands-campaign.html)
- [Battle of Makin Island: November 20-23, 1943](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-pacific/gilbert-marshall-islands-campaign/invasion-gilbert-islands/makin-island.html)
- [Gilbert and Marshall Islands - National Museum of the USAF](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196785/gilbert-and-marshall-islands/)
- [Full text of "Aleutians Gilberts And Marshalls June 1942 April 1944"](https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.98802/2015.98802.Aleutians-Gilberts-And-Marshalls-June-1942-April-1944_djvu.txt)

## Cite This Work

### APA
Cartwright, M. (2026, August 26). Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign: The US Island-Hopping Advance in the Pacific. *World History Encyclopedia*. [https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert\_and\_Marshall\_Islands\_Campaign/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert_and_Marshall_Islands_Campaign/)
### Chicago
Cartwright, Mark. "Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign: The US Island-Hopping Advance in the Pacific." *World History Encyclopedia*, August 26, 2026. [https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert\_and\_Marshall\_Islands\_Campaign/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert_and_Marshall_Islands_Campaign/).
### MLA
Cartwright, Mark. "Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign: The US Island-Hopping Advance in the Pacific." *World History Encyclopedia*, 26 Aug 2026, [https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert\_and\_Marshall\_Islands\_Campaign/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Gilbert_and_Marshall_Islands_Campaign/).

## License & Copyright

Submitted by [Mark Cartwright](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/markzcartwright/ "User Page: Mark Cartwright"), published on 26 August 2026. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en). This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.