US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Foreword
THE AMPHIBIANS CAME TO CONQUER
This book is a story of a fighting man—Kelly Turner—of the maturing
United States Navy, and of the people who helped develop the man into a
fighting admiral. It is also a story of the seagoing part of the amphibious
operations of World War II in which Kelly Turner fought.
Since Kelly Turner was a United States Naval Oficer and fought only in
the Pacific Ocean in World War II, this book deals primarily with the
amphibious matters of the World War II Pacific campaigns. But it does not
pretend to tell the whole story of our naval war or the amphibious campaigns
in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. After all, it took that distinguished historian,
Samuel E. Morison, nine of his 14 volume Hiftory of Unzted States Naval
Operations in World War II and 18 years to do that chore.
KelIy Turner’s claim to permanent naval distinction arises out of his
contributions to the amphibious phases of World War II in the South and
Central Pacific Oceans. So this volume moves from Pacific island to Pacific
atoll to Pacific island again, as our bone crushing amphibious operations
cleared the stepping stones to Tokyo.
It also tells a bit of the state of the purely naval aspects of the amphibious
art when World War II started. And, more importantly, what happened as
the war moved along to improve the art, as Kelly Turner and a million other
Americans brought their minds to bear on “the most difficult problem” in
warfare, an amphibious operation.
During the 24 years since World War 11 ended, most of the titans of the
World War II Navy—namely Leahy, King, Nimitz, Halsey, Edwards—have
told their last anecdote and voyaged over the line into their last snug harbor.
In an effort to get a well-rounded picture of Kelly Turner and of the various
amphibious operations, those of the titans (Nimitz, Kinkaid, Spruance) still
alive when this was being researched and many of his other seniors and
principal subordinates have been consulted about a vast variety of matters
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