Army & Navy – MEDALS: Tarawa’s Third

During the 76 hours of violent battle at Tarawa last November the Marines’ beachhead commander, 39-year-old Colonel David M. Shoup, of Battle Ground, Indiana, carefully concealed a painful fact: as he waded ashore his leg had been pierced by a shell fragment. For that wound, indestructible, broad-beamed Colonel Shoup received his second Purple Heart (he had been wounded before by a bomb at New Georgia).

Last week, arriving in the U.S. from Saipan, where he was chief of staff of the 2nd Marine Division, Colonel Shoup learned that his “indomitable fighting spirit” at Tarawa had won him another award: the Congressional Medal of Honor. His citation: “Colonel Shoup fearlessly exposed himself to the terrific, relentless artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire . . . rallying his hesitant troops . . . gallantly led them across the fringing reefs … to reinforce our hard-pressed, thinly held lines. Upon arrival at the shore he assumed command of all landed troops and, working without rest under constant, withering enemy fire during the next two days, conducted smashing attacks against unbelievably strong and fanatically defended Japanese positions. . , .”

Shoup’s was the 123rd Medal of Honor awarded in World War II (Army 67, Navy 29, Marines 26, Coast Guard 1), the third for Tarawa. The others went, posthumously, to two Texans, Lieut. William Deane Hawkins and Staff Sergeant William J. Bordelon.