John Lund stars in a story about the US Marines taking the Tarawa atoll of the Gilbert Islands in WW2. The script sounds a bit out of place for Suspense, because it is (much like Report on the X-915 also did). This script was adapted from The Man Behind the Gun broadcast of 1944-02-12. Robson was producer of that series and wrote many scripts for it, including this one. That series won a Peabody Award and was one of wartime patriotic radio’s most important shows.
The Battle of Tarawa was in November 1943. The episode is about the preparations for the attack. Much of it is locker-room like chatter between the Marines followed by a briefing room presentation about the strategy. Some of the language might be considered harsh in its occasional ethnic references to the wartime enemy. The language is of its time.
USA forces invaded the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands as part of an “island hopping” campaign to gain control of Japanese outposts in the Pacific Islands. The effort was intended to encircle Japan with island bases for an eventual attack on the Japanese islands. Details about the Battle of Tarawa are summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa
One element of the story is the recreation of a broadcast of Tokyo Rose. Her broadcasts were part of Japan’s strategy to demoralize US troop morale by playing music and providing news, but Rose would encourage the soldiers to stop fighting because Japan had the superior force. There were actually several women who took that role during the fighting. Many more details are at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Rose
This was not the first time that Robson used a Man Behind the Gun script in the series. In the missing Suspense episode 1951-11-12 The Mission of the Betta, which Robson wrote, he used several pages of dialogue from that earlier series.
Why was this particular script used at this very moment in the schedule? On March 5, 1957, President Eisenhower issued a declaration that the third Saturday of May be declared as Armed Forces Day. The first date under that declaration would be Saturday, May 18. This May 12 broadcast date was the closest one prior to the observance. The declaration can be viewed at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-71/pdf/STATUTE-71-PgC24.pdf
The program was recorded on Thursday, May 9, 1957. Rehearsal began at 12:30pm and ended at 6:00pm. Recording began at that time and concluded at 6:30pm.
The surviving recording is from an Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) transcription. It is complete and in excellent sound. Previously circulating copies of this episode were heavily edited, had narrow range and background noise. It is good to finally have an upgrade in sound quality for this episode after many decades without one.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP570512
THE CAST
John Lund (Narration), Ellen Morgan (Tokyo Rose), Jack Kruschen (Moish / Marine 4), Dick Crenna (Otie), Joe de Santis (Les), Robert Easton (Shorty), John Dehner (Captain / Marine 1), Larry Thor (Lieutenant / Marine 3), Lou Krugman (Ship’s P.A. voice / Marine 2), George Walsh (Suspense Narrator)
The music for this episode is by Japanese-American composer and conductor Tak Shindo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tak_Shindo Some of his music is available at the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Tak+Shindo%22
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