US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Success, Then Clijf Hanging 321
tip of Australia. The Northern Solomons were under German control from
1899 until early in World War I, when in September 1914, they were captured
by the Australians. This part of the Solomons, primarily the islands
of Buka and Bougainvillea, became an Australian mandate in 1920, under
the League of Nations.
All of the Solomons became an Australian defense responsibility with
the outbreak of World War II. Great Britain had controlled the Southern
Solomons since 1899, and the British resident commissioner resided on
the.island of Tulagi, a sliver of an island nestled under the hills of Florida
Island, 20 miles north of Koli Point in the center of the North Coast
of Guadalcanal.
The Australians had chosen the tiny island of Tulagi as their principal
base for the discharge of their defense responsibilities, because between
Tulagi and Florida Island, there was a good medium size ship anchorage
(15-25 fathoms) and a sheltered seaplane operating area, a mile and a half
long and a half mile wide. This was quite suitable for any concentration
of ships of the Australian Navy. Nearby Gavutu Island was judged
particularly suitable for a seaplane base---and just a few more miles away
was Purvis Bay, banana-shaped but deep-watered and adequate for innu-
merable small ships.
From the operation orders, the’ amphibians learned some of these facts.
They also learned from them the hazards of nature as well as the dangers
of a skillful enemy, that had to be endured in the Solomons. The transports
were to proceed to an anchorage area where: “uncharted reefs may be
expected,” and where “winds of sufficient velocity to drag anchor over
coral patched holding ground may be expected any day of the year. ”
But come what may, the amphibians were told that they must land their
Marines on the chosen coastal beaches which were “lined with coconut
plantations.”
Fortunately, the landings on this hostile shore about 600 miles south of
the equator were to take place during the “fine weather season,” Only eight
inches of rain generally fell in all of August, and while humidity might be
expected to average an unpleasant 80 percent, temperatures ordinarily
ranged only from a moderate 75 degrees to a somewhat uncomfortable
or hot 85 degrees.6
Rear Admiral Turner’s desire was to keep his task groups in the open sea
as long as possible, and out of sight of any Japanese lookout posts high up
‘ COMSOPAC Op Plan 1-42, 16 Jul. 1942, Intelligence Annex, pp. 14-20.