Over the beach - University of Oregon

Chapter 1
Introduction
In the summer of 950, when the North Korean Army attacked South
Korea, a US Army infantry battalion landing team was conducting an
amphibious landing exercise in Japan. Over the previous 5 years, the
Army and the Marine Corps had struggled bitterly over which Service
should have the responsibility for amphibious warfare. During the 920s
and 930s, both Services had grappled with the problem of transporting
and landing ground forces from the sea, but the Marine Corps systematically
developed doctrine, tactics, techniques, procedures, and equipment
for assault landings against defended shores. During World War II, both
Services made use of those techniques and developed improved methods
for conducting amphibious operations. In Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s
Pacifc Ocean Areas (POA), both Marine and Army forces carried out
landings against Japanese-held islands in the South and Central Pacifc,
culminating in the seizure of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands by forces
of Tenth US Army under Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. In
the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) and European Theater of
Operations (ETO), the Army, working with the British who had pioneered
their own approach to amphibious operations, had developed doctrine and
capabilities for continental assault landings and had carried out some of
the largest amphibious operations in history in North Africa, Sicily, Italy,
Normandy, and Southern France. In the Southwest Pacifc Area (SWPA),
General Douglas MacArthur used predominantly Army and some Marine
forces to carry out a series of landings along the coast of New Guinea
and the nearby islands before conducting the amphibious invasion of the
Philippines, which included several landings of various sizes. MacArthur’s
ground forces were transported in these operations by Rear Admiral Daniel
E. Barbey’s Seventh Amphibious Force and other Navy amphibious elements
and by the very versatile engineer special brigades that, unique to
SWPA, included engineer boat units operating landing craft. By the end of
the war, more amphibious operations had been conducted in MacArthur’s
theater than in any other theater of war.
When World War II ended, the Army leadership believed their
Service should assume the amphibious warfare mission, but it was the
Marine Corps that emerged from the defense unifcation and roles and
missions struggles of the late 940s with their amphibious warfare mission
validated by Congress, the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. Despite this validation for the Marines, the Army was also charged
with providing forces for joint amphibious operations. Thus, the Army