The development of amphibious tactics in the U.S. Navy / by Holland M. Smith with a preface by Edwin H. Simmons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Holland M. (Holland McTyeire), 1882-1967, author.

Contributor:

Simmons, Edwin H., writer of preface.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Landing operations--History.

Amphibious warfare--History.

World War, 1939-1945--Amphibious operations.

United States. Navy.

United States. Marine Corps.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (156 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

[Potomac, Maryland] : Pickle Partners Publishing, [2015]

Summary:

FROM our entry into the war at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until the Japanese surrender in September 1945, every major offensive campaign launched by the United States was initiated by an amphibious assault. Our landings at North Africa in November 1942, at Sicily and Italy in July and September 1943, and at Normandy and Southern France in June and September 1944 ended in the defeat of the German armies in Western Europe by the Allied Expeditionary Force in May 1945. The Pacific offensive, which began in the South Pacific with the landings at the Solomons in August 1942 and in the Central Pacific at the Gilberts in November 1943, carried us 3,000 miles to the Philippine Islands and 5,000 miles through to the inner defenses of the empire in the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands....Amphibious warfare was the primary offensive tactic in our conduct of global war.The tactics and techniques of our landing operations represent a new and significant development in the art of war. Although military history contains many instances of landing operations conducted by both military and navy forces in all parts of the world, from the early time man first crossed the sea to wage war, the landings were generally either limited in scope and purpose or unopposed. The feasibility of amphibious raids, in which assault forces landed from the sea are withdrawn after limited operations, and of unopposed landings, relying on surprise and conducted for the purpose of subsequent military operations ashore, has long been recognized. Until the recent war, however, the effect of modern defensive weapons was considered too decisive to permit successful assault from the sea. The development of radar, aviation, coast defense guns, torpedoes, submarines, mines, defensive obstructions and obstacles, automatic weapons, highly mobile reserves, and the necessary communication facilities to coordinate and control them seemed to present insurmountable difficulties to amphibious attack.

Contents:

Intro

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

THE AUTHOR . . . LTGEN HOLLAND MCTYEIRE SMITH

PART I: BEGINNING A SERIES ON AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS BY THE MARINE WHO KNOWS THEM BEST

The Coordinated Attack

PART II: AMPHIBIOUS WARFARE FROM THE REVOLUTION TO WORLD WAR I

PART III: BIRTH OF THE FMF, FLEET MANEUVERS, CONCEPTION OF AMPHIBIOUS DOCTRINES

PART IV: TRAINING, EXPERIMENT, SIX FLEET LANDING EXERCISES-1934-1941

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 1

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 2

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 3

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 4

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 5

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 6

Summary

PART V: THREE YEARS OF EXPERIMENT IN LANDING DOCTRINE BEFORE PEARL HARBOR

1940-1942 Preparing Amphibious Offensives

Condition of Amphibious Readiness in 1940

Doctrine

Landing Craft

The Development of the Amphibian Tractor

Naval Gunfire

Training for War

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 7

First Joint Training Force Exercises

Joint Army-Navy Exercise

Battalion and Regimental Landing Exercises

PART VI: AMPHIBIOUS WARFARE'S INFLUENCE ON THE GRAND STRATEGY OF GLOBAL CONFLICT

The Basic Strategy

European vs. Pacific Tactics

PART VII: THE BAPTISM-GUADALCANAL, MAKIN RAID, DIEPPE, AND NORTH AFRICA

The Solomons Offensive

Makin Island Raid

Dieppe Landing

Invasion of North Africa

PART VIII: STRATEGIC ATTU AND KISKA FALL, SUCCESSFUL LANDINGS MADE ON NEW GEORGIA

Aleutian Campaign

Landing on Attu

Occupation of Kiska

North through the Solomons

New Georgia Campaign

Water Jeeps

PART IX: MUNDA, NEW GUINEA, SICILY FALL BEFORE THE ALLIES' GROWING SEABORNE MIGHT

Assault on Munda

Opening Up New Guinea

Combined Invasion of Sicily

PART X: SICILY SECURED, GEN EISENHOWER NOW HAD A BRIDGE TO ITALY. HE LAUNCHED A TWO-PRONGED ATTACK.

THE FIFTH HITTING SALERNO AND THE BRITISH EIGHTH CROSSING MESSINA STRAIT. THE ALLIES FOUND HEAVY GERMAN RESISTANCE 40 MILES SOUTH OF NAPLES

Salerno.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print record.

ISBN:

1-78625-418-2

OCLC:

974584480