US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

244 Amphibians Came To Conqner
major part of the 56,000-man garrison force agreed upon (41,000 Army;
15,000 Marines) arrived at their islands .3’
The basic disagreement separating the Army and the Navy Planners
during this period was whether holding Australia was vital to the United
States war effort. Rear Admiral Turner believed it was. As late as 28 February
1942, Brigadier General Eisenhower, did not agree. He advised General
Marshall:
The United States interest in maintaining contact with Australia and in
preventing further Japanese expansion to the Southeastward is apparent . . .
but . . . they are not immediately vital to the successful outcome of the war.
The problem is one of determining what we can spare for the effort in that
region, without seriously impairing performance of our mandatory tasks.35
Rear Admiral Turner believed that maintaining contact with Australia
was a mandatory task in view of the deteriorating British, Dutch and Ameri-
can military situation in the Far East. This, fortunately, was also the view of
President Roosevelt, who on 16 February 1942, advised Prime Minister
Churchill: “We must at all costs maintain our two flanks-the right based
on Australia and New Caledonia and the left on Burma, India and China.”
The President did not go along, however, with Rear Admiral Turner’s thinking
that “No further reinforcements {should] be sent to Iceland and the
United Kingdom until Fall.’’”
Not only were Rear Admiral Turner and Admiral King pressuring the
Army during February 1942 for more positive action in the Pacific, but
they were also pressuring Admiral Nimitz, and through him, subordinate
Naval commanders in the Pacific. On 12 February 1942, CINCPAC was told:
= (a) Order Troops Troops
Issued Sailed Arrived
American Samoa (Marine) 21 Dec. 41 6 Jan. 42 19 Jan. 42
Bora Bora, Society Islands 8 Jan. 42 27 Jan. 42 12 Mar. 42
Noumea, New Caledonia 17 Jan. 42 22 Jan. 42 12 Mar. 42
Tongatabu, Tonga Islands 12 Mar. 42 10 Apr. 42 9 May 42
Western Samoa (Marine) 17 Mar. 42 9 Apr. 42 8 May 42
Efate, New Hebrides 20 Mar. 42 12 Apr. 42 4 May 42
Viti Levi, Fiji Islands 28 Apr. 42 May 42 10 June 42
New Caledonia, 22,000; Bora Bora, 4,000; Christmas Island, 2,000; Canton, 1,100; Tongatabu,
7,200; Efate, 4,9oo; Samoa, 13,5oo (Marines). 32,000 of the 41,000 Army were ““ground troops”;
(b) Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 147-54; Miller, Guadalcanal: The FirJt Offensive,
p. 24; (c) COMINCH, memorandum, FF I/Al 6-3/Ser 0019 of 17 Mar. 1942.
= Quoted in Matloff and Snell, Str#egic Planningjp. 157.
M(a) Turner; (b) Roosevelt to Churchill, 16 Feb. 1942 in Robert E. Sherwood, Roofeueh and
Hopkins: An Intimufe Hi~tory (New York: Harper & Bros., 1948), p. 508; (c) Turner to
King, memorandum, 17 Feb. 1942; subj: PacificOcean Area.