On the morning of 20 November, the Battle of Tarawa began with a preliminary naval bombardment, which was followed by an air attack, before the Navy initiated their final bombardment. The Marines began their landing around 900; however, because of poor planning, many of their landing craft were unable to reach the shore as the tide was not high enough, forcing many Marines to wade ashore. Compounding this problem, the extra time it took to get ashore allowed the Japanese to recover from the bombardment and shift forces to counter the Marine landings. The Marines who were able to make it ashore took cover behind a sea wall and attempted to break past the Japanese’s first line of defense.  By the end of the first day, the Marines had a slim beachhead and many feared that a Japanese counterattack would throw them back into the sea; however, the complete collapse of Japanese command, control, and communications prevented any concerted attack from materializing. Fighting was sporadic throughout the night, but on the next day, the Marines resumed the offensive—securing the western end of the island as well as part of the airfield. On 22 November, the Marines pressed the advance and managed to secure the entire airfield, thus forcing the Japanese into several smaller pockets of resistance to both the east and west of the landing strip. Throughout the night and into the early morning of 23 November, the Japanese launched several unsuccessful banzai charges, all of which were beaten back. The Marines spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon of the 23rd eliminating the remaining Japanese pockets of resistance, thus ending the Battle of Tarawa. The costs for securing the island were staggering, with the Marines suffering over 3,000 total casualties compared to over 4,600 suffered by the Japanese—almost their entire force (the Japanese casualties include construction laborers—half of whom were Korean).