US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

1941 Developments for Amphibious War 225
line of communications must build up rapidly so as to free the
Fleet for further movement.
5. As soon as the action ashore changes from amphibious warfare to
land warfare, the Army relieves the Marines.
Admiral Turner added:
All of these were of course subject to all the over-riding General Principles
of War, such as surprise, landing where and when the enemy wasn’t immediately
expecting you, and the only part of this general doctrine which I would
say that was changed markedly in the war was the fifth one. The Army got
into amphibious warfare in a big way, and in the earliest stage-at Guadalcanal,
they didn’t relieve the Marines as soon as I thought the doctrine
called for.
Of course during Guadalcanal, I can’t saywe had a secure line of communications,
or that at Okinawa we had control of the air all the time. But that
didn’t change the doctrine. We just were temporarily unable to carry it out.”
TRAINING
The question could be logically asked whether the future Commander
Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet received practical training as a lieutenant
commander, ‘commander or junior captain during the major Fleet Landing
Exercises (FLEX 1 to FLEX 6) or the more elementary Landing Force
exercises in 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1931 or 1932?
With one exception, the answer is “No.” As a lieutenant commander and
Gunnery, Officer on the Staff of Commander Scouting Fleet during Fleet
Problem 3, in January 1924, he took part in planning that exercise. The
5th Marine Regiment of the Marine Expeditionary Force landed at the
Atlantic end of the Panama Canal, and provided the diversion and holding
effort during which the Atlantic locks were simulated to be blown up to
prevent the passage of the Pacific Fleet. The balance of the Marine Expeditionary
Force, the forerunner of the Fleet Marine Force, landed at Culebra,
and prepared it as an island defense base.
Commander Turner missed the 1936, 1937, and 1938 amphibious exercises
through being on duty at the Naval War College, and the 1931 and 1932
exercises when he was assigned to the Navy Department. He was in the
California (BB-44) in 1922, and she did not participate in the Marine
phases of the 1922 Fleet Problem, nor in the Marine landing exercises at
- Turner.