Carlson's Raiders storm Makin Island; the surf nearly strands them there

Before dawn on August 17, 1942, two companies of Marine Raiders under Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson hit the surf off Makin Island in rubber boats, and their outboard motors died in the swells. Carlson scrapped his two-beach plan and put everyone ashore at one point, though a 12-man squad under Lieutenant Oscar Peatross had already landed separately and was fighting behind Japanese lines. Japanese fighters and flying boats strafed the beach that afternoon; the Raiders shot back and drove them off. That night, trying to leave the way they came, eleven of eighteen boats failed to break through the surf, stranding most of the force on the beach until the final group was picked up by submarine around 23:08…