AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Beach Purple Three is a World War II landing beach on Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands, one of several color-coded assault sites where U.S. forces stormed ashore during the Battle of Kwajalein in February 1944. Now quietly folded into the landscape of a remote Pacific military installation, this stretch of coral-sand coastline carries the weight of one of the Pacific War's pivotal amphibious victories.
Today the beach sits within the US Army Garrison–Kwajalein Atoll, home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. Access is restricted to garrison personnel and officially sponsored visitors, which makes reaching this spot itself a small adventure and a reminder of how layered with history and current purpose this tiny island remains.
A Landing Beach That Changed the Pacific War
In the waning days of January 1944, U.S. intelligence planners studied Kwajalein Island — just 4 kilometers long and 800 meters wide — and assigned color-coded letter designations to every potential landing point along its perimeter. The Japanese defenders, assuming any assault would come from the open ocean, had fortified the seaward side heavily while leaving the lagoon side comparatively exposed. They had not yet learned that American amphibian tractors could crunch right over the coral reef and put troops ashore on the calm inner side of the atoll. Purple beaches were part of this lagoon-side assault concept.