US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Logistics: August 1942-Febrziary 1943 415
IMPROVING THE LOGISTICAL SUPPORT SYSTEM
It did not take the stress and strain of active operations very long after
9 August 1942 to demonstrate that the naval logistical organization in the
South Pacific was inadequate both in concepts and in capabilities.
On 23 August, Rear Admiral Turner in a long six-page letter to Major
General Vandegrift wrote:
This whole Marine and Navy supply system down here seems to be bad, and
I am trying to get them to reorganize it so it will function.’s
By 30 August 1942, COMSOPAC accepted this estimate of the logistic
situation and was convinced that:
Our supply set up is not right under present conditions. For operations such
as this, logistics and operations must go hand in hand.zg
This last statement is a basic logistical principle and it actually took only
three weeks to have it fully accepted by all echelons in SOPAC which could
be some kind of a record. However, accepting the principle in a command
9,000 miles from Washington, and actually applying it to logistic support
largely under the control of other naval commands or to logistic support on
a Joint or Combined basis, were quite different things.
And the fact was that logistics had not gone hand in hand with operations;
the WATCHTOWER Operation had gone ahead with logistical sup-
port hurrying along well behind. For logistical support in the South Pacific
to flow evenly and adequately, the Navy needed Advanced Bases that were
reasonably stocked. These did not exist on 7 August 1942.
The Advanced Base at Efate, 285 miles north-northeast of Noumea,
started on 4 May 1942, had gotten a good head start on Noumea and a
two months’ head start on Espiritu Sante—but it was 1’00 miles from Guadal-
canal. Efate was a small but going concern in early August 1942, the airfield
having been used since 28 May 1942, and its underground aviation gas
tanks shortly thereafter, but it could not begin to support WATCHTOWER
all by itself.
The Advanced Base at Espiritu Sante, started on 8 July 1942, was in
early August 1942, a small shadow of its later size, although commencing
30 July bombers operated from the first airstrip built there. It was not until
14 August, when with the approval of COMSOPAC, COMPHIBFORSO-
~ RKT to Major General Vandegrift, letter, 23 Aug. 19-f2, p. 2.
= COMSOPAC to COMSERVRONSOP-4C, 301110 Aug. 1942.