US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

340 Amphibians Cane To Conqfier
antisubmarine, antiaircraft, and despatch ship, they had been masters at
their basic trade, minesweeping, at least in this area of no Japanese mines.
STATE OF THE ART
Gunfire support and air support are two of the essential ingredients
of any amphibious landing on a hostile shore.
The elementary Japanese air and ground defenses in the Guadalcanal-
Tulagi area closely matched the elementary state of the gunfire support art
in the U. S. Navy on 7 August 1942. And the air bombing art was judged
not too much better than elementary by some, including Rear Admiral
Turner.’s
Rear Admiral Turner had been in Washington when the Battles of the
Coral Sea and Midway were fought. He read the reports of our Army Air
Force and naval aviators’ bombings in some phases of those battles. Then
he read the decoded damage reports of Japanese commanders to their
superiors. “The difference was so great that it wasn’t even understandable.” 3’
Admiral Turner thought this point could, and should, be illustrated in
this book.
An excellent example involves the Japanese “Tulagi Invasion Group”
which consisted of two minelayers, one transport, two destroyers, two sub-
chaser and four minesweepers .40 The transport unloaded and departed.
The rest of the force was attacked by carrier aircraft from the Yorktown
on 4 May 1942. They reported having sunk seven ships (two destroyers, one
cargo ship, and four gunboats), forced a light cruiser to beach itself, severely
damaged both a third destroyer and a seaplane tender, which “may have
been a heavy cruiser” and damaged an 8–10,000 ton freighter. As a matter
of record, however, no destroyers and only a total of three very small ships
were sunk. The “light cruiser” beached, in fact, was a modest sized 1,320-ton
destroyer, the 17-year-old Kikzzuki of the 1925 class. Her beaching was
fortunately permanent. The ‘