US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

212 Amphibians Came To Co~quer
As late as 22 October 1941, Rear Admiral Turner stated to the Joint Board
that the number of large amphibious transports (APs) required by the Navy
under the War Plans was only 36.’9 At this time the Navy had only 16 APs,
all in the Atlantic Fleet. In addition there were five large amphibious cargo
ships (AKs) and six destroyer hull transports (APDs) in the Atlantic F1eet,
but only two AKs in the Pacific Fleet, making a total of 29 amphibious
ships.zo
In the immediate pre-December 1941 Navy, the amphibious ships, limited
in number, were organized administratively into divisions and/or squadrons
and assigned to the lowly Train Squadrons, whose primary mission was the
logistical support of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. As the number of
amphibious ships and landing craft grew phenomenally, and as the number
of prospective tasks for them multiplied, it was obvious that the amphibious
ships should be placed in a separate Type command within the major Fleets,
such as had long existed in the Fleets for the aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines
and other ships of a particular character or classification. The Type
commander handled matters dealing with personnel, materiel, and basic
training.
On 14 March 1942, and 10 April 1942 respectively, the Amphibious Forces
of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets were created in accordance with instruc-
tions from COMINCH and in due time all amphibious units within the two
Fleets were assigned to them. Organizational rosters issued close to these
dates show that there were 12 APs, four AKs and two APDs in the Atlantic
Fleet and six APs, two AKs and three APDs in the Pacific Fleet, ,when the
Amphibious Forces were established as separate entities. And this was only
four to five months before Guadalcanal.
The designation of the major amphibious types as APs, AKs, and APDs
warrants a word of explanation. In the Dark Ages, when the standard
nomenclature for the classification of naval ships was first promulgated by
the Secretary of the Navy, the Navy had numerous colliers and tugs, but
very few cargo ships and no transports. So the basic letter C was assigned
to colliers and T to tugs. Later, such other obvious assignments as D to
destroyer, H to hospital ship, N to net layer and R for repair ship were
made. With the obvious coincident letters all assigned, transports drew P
and cargo ships K from the remaining available letters of the alphabet.
‘0Joint Board, minutes of meeting, 22 Oct. 1941.
w (a) Pacific Fleet Confidential Notice 13CN- fl, I Oct. 19.iI; (b) Atlantic Fleet Confidential
Memo 1oCM-4I, 6 Oct. 19.41.