US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Planning for Paring the ~apanese Toenails 485
Just a few days before Rear Admiral Wilkinson flew off to Australia,
Admiral King on 8 February 1943 sent another memorandum to General
Marshall, commenting on General MacArthur’s reply to the Joint Chiefs of
Staff despatch of 8 January 1943 and indirectly commenting on the command
problem in his area.’
On the day before Lincoln’s Birthday 1943, Vice Admiral Halsey informed
COMINCH that the rapid consolidation of Japanese positions in the New
Georgia Group emphasized the need for early United States seizure of these
islands, He recommended that pressure on the Japanese be continued in the
Southern Solomons, and that the occupation of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands
(specifically Makin and Tarawa) in the Central Pacific, suggested by
COMINCH as the next appropriate task after CLEANSLATE, be deferred
until later.’
CINCPAC went along with this COMSOPAC recommendation.
On 14 February 1943, when there were many who believed the Japanese,
now ousted from the Southern Solomons, would strike at some other island
group in the South Pacific, Admiral Nimitz made the very shrewd estimate
that the withdrawal of the Japanese from Guadalcanal probably indicated
that the Japanese would shift to the strategical defensive in the South Pacific.
Post-war Japanese records indicate that this is what happened.s
On 17 February 1943, the CINCPAC Staff Planners “assumed” that COM-
SOPAC “will attack Munda next and will employ one Marine Division.”
This represented some beefing up from the earlier concept of one Regimental
Combat Team and two Raider Battalions, but still was a fair step away from
the realities of the operation insofar as the landing forces are concerned.
The planners reported to CINCPAC:
It seems entirely feasible to make a simultaneous thrust up the Solomons, and
in the Gilberts. Capture of objectives seems probable. Holding in Gilberts
seems doubtful. . . . Because of preparation time required, May 15, 1943,
is selected as the target date.g
The guesstimate of a Dog Day of 15th of May by the CINCPAC Staff was
missed by more than a long month, for it was the 21st of June before two
companies of Marines were landed ahead of schedule at Segi Point, New
‘ (a) COMINCH to C/S USA, memoranda, Ser 0040 of 6 Jan. 1943; Ser 00195 of 8 Feb. 1943
and replies thereto; (b) JCS despatch 192 of 8 Jan.1943.
7 (a) COMINCH to CINCPAC, 092200 Feb. 1943; (b) COMSOPAC to COMINCH, 110421
Feb. 1943; (c) CINCPAC to COMINCH, 112237 Feb. 1943.
8 (a) CINCPAC to COMSOPAC, 142357 Feb. 1943; (b) Japanme Imperial General Headquarters
(IGHQ), Army Directives, Vol. II, Agreement of 22 March 1943, p. 43.
‘ CINCPAC CornmrandS~mmcvy, Book Three, 17 Feb. 1943, p. 1398.