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Bullets
and Barbed Wire
Kerr Eby #4
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CN
Both constituted tremendous barriers to victory in the bloody battle for Tarawa; but this Marine, rifle swung grimly in one hand, typifies the resurgent spirit of the thinned but indomitable ranks of the conquerors of the Gilberts. Past the brutal wire on which hung the bodies of his comrades, the tattered Marine presses on toward the beach and the redoubts of the hated enemy.
Tarawa No. II
Kerr Eby #28
Charcoal & crayon, 1944
Gift of Abbott Laboratories
88-159-DL
This is a view of the famous pier from the end of a branch at
the seaward end. During the whole of the battle there was never-ending
drama everywhere.
The
Hard Road to Triumph
Kerr Eby #1
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CK
Bodies angled forward, grim Marines press forward against the
entrenched Japanese of Tarawa in the Gilberts in November 1943.
In the background, an armored tractor lumbers forward with them
prodding the enemy defenses with fingers of fire.
March Macabre
Kerr Eby #20
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-DD
Shuffling slowly across blood soaked sand, Marines bear a wounded
comrade back to the first aid station on embattled Tarawa, their
tautened muscles constrained to gentleness. With painful care
they hoist the slumped body of the desperately wounded man over
the sea wall on the historic battleground.
First Aid
Kerr Eby #7
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbott Laboratories
88-159-CQ
This Marine had to be moved to get at his wound.
Marines
Fall Forward
Kerr Eby #3
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CM
The road to victory in the Pacific is littered with the bodies
of gallant fighting men. Like this Marine (right center) who fell
in the assault on a Tarawa pillbox, the honored dead fell forward,
facing the foe, their feet driving to the last ebb of strength
to carry on to the objective.
A Wounded Buddy
Kerr Eby #16
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbott Laboratories
88-159-CZ
Faces tight with strain, hospital corpsmen watch breathlessly to see the effect of the blood plasma they have injected into the veins of a Marine casualty at Tarawa. Silence cloaks the onlookers as Destiny balances the delicate scales: Will it be life or death?
Helping Wounded
Kerr Eby #15
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbott Laboratories
88-159-CY
Treating a Marine casualty where he fell on the bloody beach at Tarawa, Navy hospital corpsmen bandage his wound while another corpsman opens a bottle of plasma.
Online Exhibits that feature Kerr Eby's work
Amphibious Operations
in the Pacific Theater
Marines
in Action
Navy Medical Art
of the Abbott Collection
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6 December 1999