WWII U.S. Marines' Bodies Found After 70 Years.

U.,S. Marines fighting on Betio Island, Kiribati during WWII

    

      They died in a battle for a speck of land in World War II...U.S. Marines fighting to take Betio from the Japanese.

A thousand or so Americans died...as did four-thousand or more Japanese. 

     Now a grave with the bodies of 36 Marines has been found, and the searchers who located them says there are many more on Betio in The South Pacific.

Landing Craft
Marines died by the hundreds when their landing craft got hung up on the shallow reefs and they were forced to wade 500 yards in open water under withering crossfire to reach these beaches. Landing craft can still be found although the highly corrosive atmosphere has reduced them to rusting shells. 

                                                                                                        (From Pacific Wrecks.com)

     The aftermath of the battle. More than1,000 Americans died, some when their landing craft became trapped or reefs.