Over the beach - University of Oregon

to carry the troops. 69 In lieu of participation in FLEX 6, the Army requested
Navy support for a joint landing exercise on the West Coast in January
1940. The 9,000 troops and 1,100 vehicles of the 3d Infantry Division were
to be lifted by Army transports and chartered vessels from Puget Sound
and then landed in Navy landing craft in the Monterey area. The Navy
refused to risk its landing craft in the beach assault and insisted on landing
most of the troops at a pier, so the division conducted its landing exercise
in an open feld (the alfalfa assault) with trucks playing the role of landing
craft. 70 At about that same time, the 1st Infantry Division’s 18th Infantry
Regiment began studying amphibious operations with on-shore training at
Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and boat exercises at the Edgewood Arsenal
in Maryland. 71
As part of the hemispheric defense mission, various studies were
conducted for assembling troops and shipping for expeditions to the
Caribbean and Latin America. When Germany invaded France in June
1940, preparations were made to land the 1st Marine Brigade and 1st
Infantry Division on the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe
in the Caribbean to prevent German acquisition of French feet units
stationed there. This plan was forestalled when the French admiral
neutralized the ships, but it was the beginning of serious US consideration
of joint amphibious operations. German success in Europe put amphibious
operations in a new light. Previously, US planners had assumed that forces
sent to Europe would land through existing French seaports. Now that
Germany was in control of the ports, the only way to return to the continent
of Europe was through a large-scale amphibious invasion. On 26 June 1940
the War Department established an Army General Headquarters (GHQ)
with responsibility for supervision and direction of the training of Army
tactical forces and offcially directed the 1st and 3d Infantry Divisions to
conduct amphibious training. 72
In September 1940 the Chief of Naval Operations directed the establishment
of a large-scale program to train landing craft crews for assignment
to transports and cargo ships. The training began in November of
that year, with the assignment of US Coast Guard warrant offcers and
enlisted personnel to Navy transports to provide their special expertise in
small boat operations in heavy seas and surf. Preparations were already
underway for the potential transfer of the Coast Guard from the Treasury
Department to the Navy. 73
Throughout 1940 and 1941, coordination between the still-neutral
United States and the beleaguered British grew. Rear Admiral Robert
Ghormley became a permanent observer in London in the summer of
26