US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

512 Amphibians Came To Conquer
of Captain Paul Theiss, Commander Transport Division 14 in the President
]ahon, was harassed by Japanese snooper planes for six hours. It was
attacked by seven Japanese bombing planes at deep dusk and again, after a
half moon dark, with flares (luckily faulty) dropped to aid the planes. No
ships were hit due to the well-timed and continuous radical maneuvering
of the Task Unit, executed for two hours in the best Turner tradition, and
by the heavy anti-aircraft fire of the destroyers.”
THE REHEARSAL
When Rear Admiral Turner arrived in Guadalcanal from the Solace,
the day after a big Japanese air raid, Task Force 31 took over the TOENAILS
invasion task from Task Force 32 and was promptly formed up at 1500 on
17 June 1943 with 12 LSTS, 12 LCIS, 28 LCTS, 10 APCS, three APDs, two
DMs, and two ATs. The number of ships and landing craft assigned to Task
Force 31 increased daily thereafter; Task Force 32 continued with shrinking
strength to accomplish general administrative and support tasks.
The large majority of landing ships and landing craft for the TOENAILS
Operation trained for their forthcoming operation in the Guadalcanal-
Tulagi-Russell Islands area, but there was no overall dress rehearsal for
TOENAILS with air support, gunfire support ships, and the large transports
present. This omission of an overall dress rehearsal was a violation of the
Amphibious Doctrine, as well as the lesson of WATCHTOWER which
showed considerable advantage could be gained from a dress rehearsal. In
trying to run down why there was no full-scale dress rehearsal for TOE-
NAILS, the written record is scanty, and memories pretty dim. It seems that
the Staff believed the danger from alerting the Japanese to the nearness of
an invasion, should they detect the rehearsal from an unusually heavy volume
of radio traffic, was greater than the danger from the loss of coordinated
training.34
When Vice Admiral George H. Fort, USN (Retired), who was Secondin-Command
of the Amphibious Forces in TOENAILS, was asked the ques-
tion “Why didn’t TOENAILS have a dress rehearsal ?,” his reply was,
‘