Before the invasion, US ships shelled Tarawa and this old 8-inch gun was probably put out of commission then. The guns of the Japanese did little damage to the 17 aircraft carriers, 12 battleships, 12 cruisers, 66 destroyers and 36 transport ships of the huge invasion fleet. Of the roughly 12,000 US Marines on Tarawa, 3,166 became casualties. One aircraft carrier was sunk by a Japanese submarine, resulting in 687 more US deaths. (For comparison, the 9/11 terrorist attack killed 2,606 people in New York City.)