This Military Service Page was created/owned by
David Leazer, CTTC
to remember
Beck, William "Bill", Jr., CPO.
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Contact Info
Home Town Thomasville, NC
Last Address 204 Hinkle St. Thomasville, NC
Date of Passing Dec 30, 2013
Location of Interment Holly Hill Memorial Park - Thomasville, North Carolina
Description The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. It took place from 7–9 August 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.
In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, successfully landed and captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo among which the Japanese Navy had constructed a naval and seaplane base. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.
At the same time that the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo were taking place, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal, with the objective of capturing an airfield under construction by Japanese forces. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
August / 1942
To Month/Year
August / 1942
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember enlisted Dec 30th, 1941 - 1945 Newport, Rhode Island North Atlantic Theatre...
S.W. Pacific Theatre... Awarded Good Conduct Medal... 656.21.96 USS Swanson (443)...
Loaded PT boats with depth charges and torpedoes... he didn't talk about it much. Guadacanal was 3 days of putting bodies into wooden boxes on the deck... malaria... dropping scouts on one side of the island and picking them up on another side of the island... and the scouts had bags full of human ears... he also saw how the American prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese..
