The Marines fighting at Tarawa in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor, WWII. Check the numbers out this guy talks about at the end of his interview. I pulled the video from the National Archives in Maryland. The Marines had to walk across the coral for about 500 meters, waist deep, to get there. Below is a pic of the beach during the fight, and a wounded Marine being pulled back out across the coral to safety in a Zodiac by his brothers. Click on "Tarawa" below to see the short video. I cut it a few years ago.


 

Tarawa