ELLIOTT, BRICE Nov 20, 1943 age 20 KIA Tarawa

SAMUEL BRICE ELLIOTT  b. Nov 10, 1923 Tulsa, Oklahoma d. Nov 20, 1944  Killed in Action Tarawa, Gilbert Islands

Pfc 521492 USMC Co A 1^st Bn 8^th Marine Div

Buried: Honolulu Wall of Missing, Hawaii

16658 Lenore

Parents: Samuel Talbert & Geneva Mary (Blackford)

Siblings: Magdalene L., Garth Dalmond, Charles Louis, Ronald Keith, Colleen   

All of the family except for the two youngest children was born in Oklahoma. Samuel was a brick mason. Just one of those oddities noted when reviewing their family history is that the mother, Geneva, was the last of the family to die, in 1996; there is a sadness about this.

 

The sons of Samuel worked for their father in the building trades. The family, less Magdalene, all lived at 16658 Lenore in 1940.  Brice registered for the draft June 1942 when he was 5’11” 150 lbs with brown eyes and black hair. He had boot camp in San Diego.

Marines & cargo Cape Gloucester

 

The Battle of Tarawa (code name Operation Galvanic) was fought in the Pacific from Nov 20 to Nov 23, 1943. It took place as the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, located in what is now the nation of Kiribati. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio. Places that cost so many lives are now has disappeared from recognition.



Red Beach No 3 Tarawa

 

 

 

This battle was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the Pacific war that the US faced serious Japanese opposition of an amphibious landing.



 

Tarawa Beach

 

The film “With the Marines at Tarawa” won the 1944 Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. It runs 20 minutes and can be viewed online. As the images were too graphic for that day’s Hollywood standards it required permission from President Roosevelt to be released.

Brice received the Purple Heart.