Advance Base Operations
1912 the Marine Corps opened the Advanced Base School
- train marines to seize and defend bases required by the Navy
- Move away from ship detachments
- Expands Marine Corps
- Creates Advanced Base Force
- First permanent organization dedicated to the Expeditionary Mission
- Used to justify Marine Corps existence, used to defend against cuts
General Order 241
Aligns Marines with the Naval Fleet (created Fleet Marine Force). December 1933.
Fleet Marine Force
- Aligns Marines with Navy Fleets
- Marine Expeditionary Force
- Tentative Manual for Landing Operations
- Marine Corp has solidified it’s existence with this as it establishes their purpose
Blitzkrieg
Hitler’s strategy WW2 designed to bring swift victory with maximum concentration of armor, infantry, artillery, and aviation
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- President during World War II with a “Germany First” strategy
- Before entering the war, FDR directed the Navy to conduct neutrality patrols and escort of Lend-Lease convoys partway across the Atlantic
- Agreed with Churchill that defeating U-boats was priority
Lend-Lease Act
Lend-Lease Act
1941
Lend military equipment to allied powers (heavy support for Britain)
Further shows that we want to remain neutral (even though we knew it was inevitable that we would be joining the war) and that we want to be paid back following the war
By Franklin D. Roosevelt
Destroyers for Bases
1940
Sell 50 US Navy Destroyers in exchange for access and use of British bases
Shows US is siding with Britain and that our involvement in the war is inevitable (and looming)
On September 2, 1940 the United States signed an agreement to transfer 50 old destroyers to the United Kingdom in return for the rights to four British bases in the Western Hemisphere.
Ernest King
Commander in chief of U.S. naval forces during World War II (as well as CNO and later Fleet Admiral)
Navy grew while under his leadership to 92,000 ships and 4 million men
Implemented systems where ships could be repaired and supplied at sea
King refused to escort merchant ships in convoys until US increased production of destroyers
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Wanted to counter Soviet communism (containment) and balance the budget, reduce military spending, massive retaliation, “New Look” Navy and Air Force that used nuclear weapons in place of conventional troops; resulted in Navy budget cuts, but still poured what money it had into nuclear propulsion and ballistic missiles
Douglass MacArthur
Proposes Hoover move the Marines to the Army
Foxer
An acoustic decoy deployed by the allies to confuse German torpedoes that homed in on the sounds of a ship’s propulsion system. Eventually, with other allied countermeasures, led to the German retreat of U-boats in the Atlantic in 1943.
Operation Husky
Overall command-general Dwight D. Eisenhower
Secure beachheads in 48 hours
Made possible the invasion and conquest of Italy the next month
Two Ocean Navy Act
US response to fall of France
Increase size by 70%
More warships, more aircraft, more carriers
Preparing to fight German Navy
The Zero
Navy Type 0, fighter aircraft, a single-seat, low-wing monoplane used with great effect by the Japanese during World War II. Designed by Horikoshi Jiro, it was the first carrier-based fighter capable of besting its land-based opponents.
Chester Nimitz
Commander of Pacific Fleet during WW2. Known for his calm and inspirational leadership. Eventually became and fleet admiral and helped change the war in the pacific (victories in the Battle of Midway (turning point) and Coral Sea) which led to allied victory.
Battle of Coral Reef
7-8 May of 1942
Fighting Japanese right above Australia
First ship battle where opposing ships never saw each other
Tactical defeat for Americans, lost 1 of 4 carriers in the Pacific
Operational victory because Japanese recalled their invasion fleet and never took Port Moresby, allies retain control in Coral Sea
Guadalcanal
Navy leaves Marines stranded on Guadalcanal for 5 months
Battle of Guadalcanal was an important Marine victory and was notable for the interrelationship of a complex series of engagements on the ground, at sea, and in the air
Heavy ship losses on both sides, but U.S. lost less men and Japanese lost group of elite airmen
Henderson Field
Battle of Guadalcanal led to possession of airfield, as U.S. took possession of it after Marines launched a surprise attack on the Japanese
Air base was important to control of the sea lines of communication between the U.S. and Australia
- importance emphasized by Alexander Vandergrift
Harry S. Truman
President from 1945-1953
Developed Marshall Plan and NATO
Authorized the use of nuclear weapons against Japan
Was President at the Potsdam conference where he had personal issues with Joseph Stalin
United Nations - Oct 1945
Objectives: Maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict
Complicated by Cold war
National Security Act of 1947
Civilian head (SecDef)
Established the NSC, SecDef, and CIA
A separate Air Force
Dept of war renamed as department of Army and Navy into Nat. Mil. Establishment headed by SecDef
Marine Corps stayed under Navy
Amended in 1949 to create the DoD and JCS
Korean War
UN Strategy US- Containment of communism UN- Test of collective security South Korea- Defend sovereignty 30 June 1950: Truman ordered US forces to allied perimeter at Pusan August: 8th Army and 1st provisional marine brigade arrives US was to act as “police force” Deployed 7th fleet to Taiwan
James Forrestal
Last cabinet level Secretary of the Navy and was the first Secretary of Defense (1947). Was a big advocate for aircraft carriers and first supercarrier was named after him, USS Forrestal. Also the namesake of the Forrestal lectures at USNA
EO 9981
An executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination “on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin” in the United States Armed Forces. The executive order eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.
Massive Retaliation
Eisenhower’s presidential policy regarding retaliation to counter soviet union attacks
New Look
Modernizes the Navy and provides more air support
More nuclear powered technology
Air Force gets new bombers
JFK
Perceived as diplomatically weak by Soviet leaders, flexible response defense policy - reliance on convention and controlled, graduated responses to global crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
US and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from US shores
Gulf of Tonkin
3 vietnamese patrol boats pursue US ships conducting SIGINT
Warning shots fired
North Veitnamese boats “fired” torpedoes and MMG
Maddox expended 380 3” and 5” shells killing 4 NV sailors
Nixon asks congress for military support to settle conflict in South Vietnam
Brown Water Navy
How the US adapted to fight in Vietnam because of their lack of a real Navy.
Had to learn to fight in the narrow passes and shallow depths of remote Southeast Asian rivers
Swift Boats, PBRs (patrol boats, river), and monitors (modified landing craft)–were conceived and constructed within the first years of the war
Amphibious Readiness Group
At the most basic level, an amphibious force consists of a Navy element — a group of ships known as an amphibious task force (ATF) — and a landing force (LF) of U.S. Marines (and occasionally, U.S. Army troops), in total about 5,000 people. Together, these elements — and supporting units — are trained, organized, and equipped to perform amphibious operations.
