US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

304 Amphibians Came To Conquer
little amplification by you. It is expected, however, that you will exercise such
direction as you may consider necessary when changed or unforeseen situations
arise. . . .48
Vice Admiral Ghormley, on 9 May 1942, spelled out his understanding
of this directive in considerable detail in the very excellent COMSOPAC
War Diary as follows:
The Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet would order Task Force Commanders
to report to the Commander South Pacific Force for duty. The
Commander South Pacific Force would direct the Task Force Commander to
carry out his mission (as given by the Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet).
The Commander South Pacific Force would not interfere in the Task Force
Commander’s mission unless circumstances, presumably not known to the
Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet, indicated that specific measures were required
to be performed by the Task Force Commander. The Commander
South Pacific Force would then direct the Task Force Commanders to take
such measures.4g
It is certainly deducible from this, that if COMSOPAC felt he had only
limited authority to interfere in the broad mission, then he had even less
authority to interfere in how the mission was carried out tactically.
This CINCPAC directive apparently was so firmly in Vice Admiral
Ghormley’s mind that when the despatch version of the WATCHTOWER
directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived on the Fourth of July 1942,
stating that COMINCH assumed Ghormley would command in person in
the operating area, he still did not visualize himself as an operational
commander exercising the full range of command authority in an operating
area. This was so even though the word “command” had b?en used by
COMINCH without limiting adjectives and therefore included “the
direction, coordination, and control of military forces.” 50
Admiral Nimitz’s despatch of 9 July that COMSOPAC would exercise
“strategic command in person” was certainIy a modification of the basic
CINCPAC 9 May directive to COMSOPAC, but it was also a modification
of the CINCPAC despatch of 27 June telling COMINCH that ‘lGhormley
will be placed in full command of operation. ” 51 The use of the words
“strategic command” by Admiral Nimitz could have been interpreted as
a warning not to step into the immediate tactical field, and certainly left no
mCINCPAC, Instructions to Prospective COMSOPAC, Ser 09000 of 12 May 1942.
“ COMSOPAC War Diary, 9 May 1942.
mJoint Chiefs of Staff, Dictionary of United States Military Terms for Joivt Usage(Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1960).
‘1CINCPAC to COMINCH, 272251 Jun. 1942.