The ground assault began on three beaches on the northern end of the island, labeled Red 1 through Red 3. Other beaches, refered to as Green and Black, were not considered as being suitable locations for landing attack forces.

Marines began to approach the beaches at around 0900 hours, only to find themselves hung up on reefs about 500 yards from the beaches. While the battle planners had allowed for the rising levels of the tide, the tides were near their lowest, and many of the assault vehicles were caught on the reefs around the island.

During this time, the Navy had ceased fire to allow the Marines to land on the beach. However, during this lull in the fire, the Japanese, who had been hiding in various shelters, were able to man their guns, and attack the advancing Marines. As a result, many of the US assault vehicles were destroyed, and fewer than half of the original force were still operational. At one point, a Japanese defenders was able to swim out to one of the abandoned vehicles behind the Marines, and use it against them, attacking from behind.

Though the fighting was fierce, and many of the assault vehicles unusable, by the end of the day, the Marines had been able to advance to about half-way across the island.

The Battle of Tarawa