On this day in 1943, U.S. troops stormed the Japanese-held Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The bloody, 76-hour Battle of Tarawa is remembered as the first major American offensive in the central Pacific. For the full story, watch this clip from The Pacific War in Color: Island Hopping. | Smithsonian Channel Aviation Nation

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B-29 Superfortress: The Final Air War Captured in Color [Rare Restored WWII Footage] Witness the raw, Technicolor reality of the Pacific Air War in 1945 with the Academy Award-nominated documentary, "The Last Bomb." Produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, this film offers an unprecedented look at the logistical mastery and aerial firepower that defined the final months of World War II. It chronicles the relentless daylight bombing campaigns waged by the XXI Bomber Comman