US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

234 Amphibians Came To Conquer
“The necessities of the case call for action in 1942—not 1943.” This meant
SLEDGEHAMMER.”
With this same point of view held strongly in the Army planning staff, it
can be seen how diflicult it was to take the Joint military decision that it was
practical, within United States available resources, to start the offensive-
defensive phase of amphibious warfare in the South Pacific. But this, both
Admiral King, and his tireless subordinate, Rear Admiral Turner, were still
hoping to do.
THE JAPANESE STIR UP THE EAGLE
The Joint Staff Planners, in late April 1942, moved to pass on to the Joint
Chiefs their long standing deadlock in regard to “Defense for the Island
Bases along the line of communication between Hawaii and Australia,” when
on 24 April 1942 they agreed that the Joint Staff Plans Committee would
proceed as follows:
Admiral Turner and General Handy will each prepare a memorandum
setting forth their views on certain controversial points, these views to be
incorporated in the paper when forwarded.ss
The new draft was ava;lable in the early days of May, and Admiral King
sought General Marshall’s help to resolve the issue since any real acceptance
of the Navy’s position would require a more offensive minded Army Air
Corps position, as well as the ground Army, toward the Pacific War.
However, at this point the Japanese came to the support of the Navy
planners’ desire for “action” in the Pacific, particularly a United States move
into the Solomons. The 1938 Japanese Basic War Plan, in effect at the start
of the Japanese-United States phase of World War H, called for the occupa-
tion of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa, as a second phase task following
conquest and consolidation in Malaya, Netherlands East Indies and the
Philippines. These second phase occupations were judged necessary by the
Japanese in order to cut the lines of communication between the United
States and Australia and make feasible Japanese occupation of Australia.
As a start on these second phase tasks the Japanese, in April 1942, orga-
nized for seizing the first stepping-stone 350 miles southward toward New
Caledonia. Their then current positions were at Rabaul in New Britain and
m (a) Churchill, The Hitrge O} F~e, pp. 320, 34o; (b) Presidential Memoranda to General
Marshall and JCS, 6 May 1942,
= Joint Planning Staff Meetings, minutes, 24 Apr. 1942.