Compass Points - Learning at Last
Marine Corps reopens old airfield
Compass Points - Learning at Last
Marine Corps reopens old airfield
September 2, 2024
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Happy Labor Day!
And happy VJ Day!
On September 2, 1945, 79 years ago today, onboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Harbor, Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, signed the official surrender. World War II was over.
Today, the Marine Corps is re-learning how to win in the Pacific. One lesson goes back to the fighting on Peleliu back in September 1944.
On September 15, 1944, as part of the Marine island hopping campaign in the Pacific, the 1st Marine Division invaded Peleliu, an island of Palau. As the Marines loaded in their LVTs and headed for the beach, they did not know two things. First, they did not know that in less than 12 months Japan would surrender and finally World War II would be won. Second, they did not know that the battle for Peleliu would not take a quick 5 days, as some predicted. Instead, it would stretch to a long, difficult, and bloody 75 days. Author Eric Niderost describes the landing:
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These first waves were in a variety of craft, most particularly LVTs (Landing Vehicle, Tracked). They were also called amphibious tractors, or amtrack. Some marines called them “alligators.”
Just ahead, Peleliu was being pummeled by a steady rain of shells. Flames shot high into the air with every ear-shattering detonation, and thick coils of smoke rose to form a pulsating black curtain that enveloped the landing beaches like a dark shroud. The approaching Marines could hope that the Japanese defenders were obliterated by the very intensity of the bombardment. After all, this was the third consecutive day of shelling, and the Japanese had not replied with their own guns.
But such hopes proved far too sanguine. Soon Japanese artillery opened up on the approaching landing craft with a vengeance, the near misses marked by towering geysers of water. It was the first hint that Peleliu might not be the relative walkover that some commanders had predicted. The Battle of Peleliu was to prove a difficult nut to crack, and indeed, some later called it the hardest campaign of the Pacific Theater.
-- Eric Niderost
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The World War II Marines fighting on Peleliu in the Pacific learned several lessons about fighting and defeating a peer competitor. Among the lessons, the importance of:
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-- remote airfields.
-- robust naval support
-- air and naval gunfire
-- large, combined arms infantry battalions
-- armor, artillery, and combat engineers
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Is the Marine Corps today relearning and adopting all these lessons? While all the lessons should be quickly relearned, it is not clear what lessons the Marine Corps has relearned so far. It is clear, however, that at least one lesson has been relearned.
Peleliu was captured because of its remote airfield. The vast distances of the Pacific both in World War II and today mean that the Marines will need large numbers of remote airfields. Where can the Marine Corps find a remote airfield available in the vast expanse of the Pacific?
Surprise. Surprise. After nearly 80 years the remote airfield on the island of Peleliu -- the same airfield the Marines fought so hard to win -- that airfield is being reopened.
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After eight decades of dormancy, the US Marines have restored a historic World War II airstrip on Peleliu, a small island that is part of the Pacific nation Palau. This strategic move, completed after months of repairs by US naval engineers, saw the landing of a KC-130J long-range tanker aircraft on June 22. The move comes amid escalating tensions between China on one side, and Taiwan and the US on the other. The Peleliu airstrip is one of several bases the Americans are eyeing or have already prepared in the context of growing tensions in the South China Sea and the Western Pacific.
-- France 24
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Has the Marine Corps today relearned all the critical lessons from World War II? Not yet. But after nearly 80 years, with the reopening of the Peleliu airfield, perhaps we can put a check mark on one valuable lesson.
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√ remote airfields.
-- robust naval support
-- air and naval gunfire
-- large, combined arms infantry battalions
-- armor, artillery, and combat engineers
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Compass Points salutes the Marines who captured Peleliu in World War II and also salutes all those Marines today relearning the lessons of World War II, including the importance of remote airfields.
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Warfare History Network
Unnecessary Hell: The Battle of Peleliu
By Eric Niderost
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/unnecessary-hell-the-battle-of-peleliu/
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France 24 The Observers
US Reopens Historic WWII Airstrip Amid Rising Pacific Tensions
Never, never, never give up an airfield. A nation with global responsibilities must have a global web of mutually supporting air fields each within range of three to four other airfields. Add 12-16 mobile ones ( Aircraft carriers). Not every, and perhaps most do not need permanently assigned aircraft. Even better if these airfields can co-locate with ports. These are the strategic lily pads that make positioning, staging, repositioning, deploying and evacuating possible. It is the strategic flexibility that allows you to mass or disburse as circumstances dictate. It forces your enemies to consider far more scenarios and potential threats. You can stage fuel, supplies and ammunition, billeting and medical facilities. While installations, even manned with minimal personnel are not inexpensive they are cheap compared to the alternatives and the lack of options. This is global, maneuver warfare at the installation level.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union we engaged in an ill advised , massive draw down of facilities both in CONUS and overseas with the further mirage of cost savings by creating mega bases in violation of all principles of distributing valuable resources from sabotage, terrorism, conventional and unconventional attacks. Most of this occurred with highly questionable claims of cost savings and virtually no consideration for actual war time considerations.
I hope we don't garrison the island with the SIF!