With just about every Governmental agency behind it, this is clearly designed for US domestic consumption to bolster morale ahead of the looming D-Day - and it doesn't pull it's punches. On the other side of the world, a squad of marines is gathered on the deck of a destroyer attending a church service. They are aware that next day, they are to embark on a perilous mission to dispossess the Japanese of an airfield on the strategically important island of Tarawa. A successive series of naval and aerial bombardments over three days will hopefully soften up their opponents before the ground assaul...