US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

CHAPTER VII
WATCHTOWER;
One for Ernie King
THE DECISION TO OPEN THE OFFENSIVE-
DEFENSIVE PHASE
To get the United States offensive-defensive phase in amphibious warfare
started against the southward rolling Japanese, the military decision that
this was a practicality, within United States amphibious resources, had to
be taken.
Then the area of the counter-offensive had to be chosen, and specific
amphibious operations within this area had to be conceived.
Note: The officialU. S. Army history of the Guadalcanal Operation, written in 1948, states that
the documents in the files of the Navy in regard thereto are “widely diffused.”’ This was the
understatement of the year. Official War Diaries of ships and unit commands are available in
quantity, but when it comes to locating background data in the files which individual ships and
lower unit commands continuously maintained during World War II, it cannot be done, because
these files are non-existent. They were officially destroyed and went up in smoke. The Directors
of Naval Record Centers witnessed this great historical loss as they struggled to stay within
available stowage space or below a set maximum cubic footage of record allowed by orders
originating in the Executive Office of the Secretary of the Navy or in the Department of Defense.
Even the War Diaries were limited in scope and contents. In June 1942 the Assistant Chief of
Staff to the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet addressed a letter to the Commander Amphibious
Force, Pacific Fleet in which he said:
‘To conserve paper and time, it is suggested that the reference report [War Diary] could
be materially condensed.’
There was not much in the Amphibian War Diaries before this, and after the word got around,
a whole months War Diary appeared on two pages with nary a mention of policy, plans, or
progress contained therein.
PESTILENCE was the code name assigned for the entire offensive operation in the South
Pacific Area initiated in July 1942. WATCHTOWER was the code name for the Tulagi Phase.
CINCPAC to COMSOPAC Ser 070231 of Jul. 42.
‘ (a) John Miller Jr., G#uddkznu/: The Fir,~ Ofiemive, Vol. 5 in subseries The Wur irs T~e
~acificof series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR H (Washington: Historical
Division, Department of the Army, 1949), p. xi. (b) CINCPACFLT to COMPHIBFORPACFLT,
letter, A16-3/LE/A~5 (o5 )/Ser 01745, of 2I Jun. 1942. Signed by Capt. Irving D. Wiltsie,
USN. (c) COMPHIBFORPACFLT, War Diurie~, Jun.-Dee. 1942.
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