US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Polishing
CHAPTER XIII
Skills in the Russells
MOVING UP THE SOLOMONS
The first real move north was to Rendova Island in the New Georgia
Group about 180 miles northwest of Lunga Point, but this most worthwhile
step was preceded by an advance a stone’s throw away to the Russell Islands
lying only 30 miles northwest of Guadalcanal Island.
It was more than several months after Rear Admiral Turner arrived at
Noumea from Guadalcanal for the first time, on 13 August 1942, before
he started to think about, and his staff started to plan, the first offensive step
forward from Guadalcanal to Rabaul.
The Amphibians had learned a good deal from the August landings at
Tulagi and Guadalcanal, and they continued to learn a great deal during the
long, hard five months’ struggle to maintain logistic support for these two
important toe holds in the Southern Solomons. By January 1943, marked
changes had occurred in their thinking about the techniques of support
through and over a beachhead, and new amphibious craft were just becom-
ing available. They were anxious to test these changes and the new craft
on a strange shore.
Ten days after the 13th of August arrival at Noumea, recommendations
for improvement in the logistic area of the landing phases of amphibious
operations had been sought from all commands in TF 62 by Rear Admiral
Turner. It was on the basis of the recommendations received, that Com-
mander Amphibious Forces SOPAC made proposals for revisions in Fleet
Training Publication (FTP) 167, the Amphibians’ Bible, and it was on
the basis of these recommendations and those coming in from the Atlantic
Note: With the closeof ChapterX11,AdmiralTurner disappears,with very minorexceptions
duly noted, as a direct source of information, comment and opinions not only of this work, but
of the events related,
The author, due to Admiral Turner’s sudden death, did not have the opportunity to discuss
with him, in detail, any of the later operations of the World War II amphibious campaigns of
the Pacific.
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