Lieutenant Bonnyman’s gallantry resulted in a posthumous Medal of Honor, the third to be awarded to Marines on Betio. His sacrifice almost single-handedly ended the stalemate on Red Beach Three. Nor is it coincidence that two of these highest awards were received by combat engineers. The performances of Staff Sergeant Bordelon on D-Day and Lieutenant Bonnyman on D+2 were representative of hundreds of other engineers on only a slightly less spectacular basis. As an example, nearly a third of the engineers who landed in support of LT 2/8 became casualties. According to Second Lieutenant Beryl W. Rentel, the survivors used “eight cases of TNT, eight cases of gelatin dynamite, and two 54-pound blocks of TNT” to demolish Japanese fortifications. Rentel reported that his engineers used both large blocks of TNT and an entire case of dynamite on the large bombproof shelter alone. [Illustration: _The 8th Marines makes its final assault on the large Japanese bombproof shelter near the Burns-Philp pier. These scenes were vividly recorded on 35mm motion picture film by Marine SSgt Norman Hatch, whose subsequent eyewitness documentary of the Tarawa fighting won a Motion Picture Academy Award in 1944._ Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 63930 ] At some point during the confused, violent fighting in the 8th Marines’ zone--and unknown to the Marines--Admiral Shibasaki died in his blockhouse. The tenacious Japanese commander’s failure to provide backup communications to the above-ground wires destroyed during D-Day’s preliminary bombardment had effectively kept him from influencing the battle. Japanese archives indicate Shibasaki was able to transmit one final message to General Headquarters in Tokyo early on D+2: “Our weapons have been destroyed and from now on everyone is attempting a final charge.... May Japan exist for 10,000 years!” [Illustration: Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 310213 _1stLt Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., USMC, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for extreme bravery during the assault on the Japanese bombproof shelter on D+2. Two of the four Marines awarded the Medal of Honor for Tarawa were combat engineers: Lt Bonnyman and SSgt Bordelon._]