US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

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NR & L (MOD) 31940
Training Seabees at Noumea, New Caiedonia, for impending operations,
April 1943. Rear Adnzirai Turner, Commander Third Amphibious Force,
with his sta~.
eral MacArthur. Vice Admiral Halsey happily agreed with General
MacArthur’s desire for setting Dog Day on 15 May in order that SOPAC
Operations would start on the same day as the operations in the Southwest
Pacific Area. These latter operations were for the seizure of Woodlark Island
210 miles west from the airfields in the south of Bougainvillea, as well as for
the seizure of the Trobriand Islands further west, Soon General MacArthur
delayed his readiness date to 1 June and eventually he said that his forces
could not be ready before a 30th June date. When Commander Third Fleet
was subjected to further Navy high command urging to get General Mac-
Arthur to set an earlier date, Vice Admiral Halsey responded by proposing
that SOPACFOR charge up the Solomons and make a night landing on
Rendova. However, he finally ended the high-level kibitzing by informing
his superiors on 26 May that after much discussion and a reappraisal of
the specific effort required by each subordinate command in the Third Fleet,
a 30 June D-Day was agreeable to him also.lg
1sCOMSOPAC to COMINCH, 160420, 260545 May 1943 and related dispatches.