Compass Points - Need More Infantry
No substitute for global, combined arms infantry.
August 31, 2025
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Sunday is a good day for reflection.
This Sunday is a good day to ponder the continuing importance of infantry. It was 80 years ago this week when Japan surrendered to the US, bringing World War II to an end. After 80 years, the US is facing another war in the Pacific. Of all the major worldwide threats to the US today, the biggest threat is China. The goal of US military strategy, of course, is to deter China so no major war breaks out. If open warfare breaks out again in the Pacific, it would be a daunting challenge.
During World War II the US fought a full scale war in the Pacific. If the US were forced to fight again in the Pacific today, some technology would change, but the sheer scope, expanse, and challenge of fighting in the Pacific would remain. The need for infantry would also remain. There is no substitute for combined arms infantry.
China today wants to expand its power and influence throughout the Pacific and around the world. China is hardly the first Pacific nation that wants to conquer. After years of brutal fighting, the previous Asian nation that wanted to conquer the Pacific, Japan, finally surrendered on board the USS Missouri.
It is often suggested that war in Pacific years ago began with the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. That is not accurate. By 1941, Japan had already been fighting in the Pacific for a decade. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, starting a horrific war against China. The attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor was just another step in Japan's plan to conquer all of the Pacific.
The day after Pearl Harbor, Japan launched attacks on the Philippines and elsewhere.
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While some Japanese forces were carrying out the attacks in the Pacific, others were overrunning Malaya, North Borneo, and Thailand. After eighteen days of fighting Hong Kong was captured on 25 December 1941. Thailand, unable to resist the Japanese, agreed to co-operate with them. Early in 1942 the Japanese took Borneo and by 15 February the British garrison in Malaya capitulated. In the Netherlands East Indies the U.S. Navy inflicted damage on an enemy convoy in the Battle of Makassar Strait, the first important surface action of the war for the U.S. Navy. On 9 March 1942 formal surrender by the Dutch ended all resistance in the Netherlands East Indies. By these conquests in Asia and the Pacific, the Japanese gained valuable territory rich in natural resources and were ready to expand in other directions.
-- The War Against Japan, 2nd Edition
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By 1937, Japan joined with Nazi Germany, Italy and other nations in uniting under the Anti-Comintern Pact. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US jumped into the Pacific fight with combined arms infantry assaults on one Japanese held island after another until finally the day of Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri.
The importance of infantry was clear in the Pacific in World War II, and the importance of infantry continues in conflicts today. Despite advances in technology, the fighting ongoing in Ukraine has shown the continuing importance of combined arms infantry. Author Logan Nye, in his article,"Why Ukraine and Russia still need infantry (and us, too)" Nye writes, "infantry has remained essential for a simple reason: It’s not your land unless you hold it after the battle, and the person holding it when the dust clears will almost certainly be an infantryman."
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Infantry’s primary role is to close with and destroy the enemy. That’s it, in a nutshell. How that has worked has changed a lot over the last few thousand years. And yes, infantry as a concept, though not always named as such, is older than Greece.
. . . Over that time, infantry has stood up to, or lost against, horse archers, chariots, armored knights, catapults, rockets, cannons, actual elephants, machine guns, tanks, and so, so much disease, pestilence, and famine.
The entire time, infantry has remained essential for a simple reason: It’s not your land unless you hold it after the battle, and the person holding it when the dust clears will almost certainly be an infantryman.
. . .The job of a modern infantryman is, of course, fraught with danger. While that has nearly always been the case, (infantry is often one of the most dangerous jobs in any given war, with rare exceptions like in World War II where strategic bomber, submariner, and merchant mariner were all more dangerous), being a maneuver force on a battlefield absolutely saturated with cameras is extra dangerous. There’s nowhere to hide when there are literally hundreds of cameras in the air.
Infantry still forms the backbone of most major assaults from either Russian or Ukrainian forces. Russia is currently pushing the line harder than Ukraine (We love you, Ukraine, and always hate to admit when Russia is advancing, but, um, we can all look up the maps and see Russia’s tiny, tiny advances). Those Russian assaults often include “infantry assaults” or “infantry infiltration” of Ukrainian lines. Ukrainian defenses always include their own dug-in infantry. When Ukraine attacks Russia, it usually relies heavily on mechanized infantry delivered via Bradleys and similar vehicles. Ukrainian troops then dismount to hit Russian-held defenses.
Early in the war, assaults in either direction were largely infantry affairs, with artillery supporting each side. That’s still the case, but drones have been of increasing importance since 2022, and reports from the frontline frequently include some description of how infantry has to plan to come under assault within minutes of an attempted move.
-- Logan Nye, "Why Ukraine and Russia still need infantry (and us, too)"
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Marine infantry in World War II conducted a series of island hopping amphibious assaults across the length of the Pacific to defeat Japan. Without enough Marine infantry there would have been no victory. When Japan surrendered 80 years ago this week onboard the USS Missouri, it was a tribute to all the American and allied combined arms infantry, and especially the US Marines, who had fought so hard and sacrificed so much to win victory in the Pacific.
Today the threat to peace in the Pacific is not Japan, but China. Should war come, the US will no doubt use millions of drones in any conflict. No matter how numerous, however, drones can never bring victory. Millions of drones in the fighting in Ukraine have not produced victory for either side. Drones by themselves will never be able to defeat China in the Pacific. To defeat China and win victory in the Pacific will require what victory in war has always required: infantry. Highly skilled, well equipped, tough minded infantry supported by air, armor, artillery, logistics, and more is the essential recipe for victory.
Inexplicably, over the last several years, the Marine Corps has reduced its combined arms infantry. Some infantry battalions have been removed entirely. The remaining infantry battalions have had their infantry numbers reduced. In addition, too much of the support Marine infantry needs including air, armor, artillery, snipers, logistics, and more has been reduced or eliminated entirely.
There is broad understanding across the Marine community that it is time for the Marine Corps to restore and enhance its global, combined arms infantry. The dangers facing the US are not shrinking, they are expanding. Marine Corps global, combined arms infantry needs to be expanding as well. There is no substitute for highly skilled, well equipped, combined arms infantry.
Over the last week, Compass Points readers have generated online and off a cornucopia of comments, insights, and analysis. Compass Points appreciates all readers who in their own ways are continuing to build the discussion about a stronger Marine Corps, and particularly thanks all our readers who served as seminar leaders this week by providing topics, articles, and comments. Many thanks!
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The War Against Japan
2nd Edition
By Center of Military History - United States Army
https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/69698/pg69698-images.html
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We are the Mighty - 08/11/2025
Why Ukraine and Russia still need infantry (and us, too)
By Logan Nye
https://www.wearethemighty.com/feature/why-ukraine-and-russia-still-need-infantry-and-us-too/
The modern US Marine Infantry Bn is too small as is a Marine Rifle Company. Every sort of conflict requires infantry performing slightly different missions and using different skill sets. Of course they need to modernize from spears to rifles and drones and radios. Measure and counter measure. Insurgencies are infantry centric and may drag on for years. It is the infantry that carries the radios forward that report targets for the Artillery, mortars and Close Air Support.
In WWII we enjoyed air superiority across Western Europe. And yet both the Battle of the Bulge, the Airborne effort at Arnhem and the Hürtgen Forest revealed that the enemy through night time movement and camouflage could move entire Divisions around the battle field. What other than infantry could have held Khe Shan, recaptured Hue City or Fallujah? Drones are no substitute for Artillery or Bombers directed to their targets by infantry.
My experience with both the Ukrainian and Russian military revealed a reluctance to operate in a coordinated and synergistic combined arms manner. Simply too complex, very heavily dependent on communications and initiative and a level of trust usually absent. Both are low trust societies and their military formations are low trust. I remain convinced that a coordinated Marine Combined Arms offensive with Joint support could operate in the Ukraine.
The Russo-Ukrainian war has more in common with the dead lock on the Western Front in WWI than other conflicts. The dead lock is and was created by infantry units holding the line.
Final point to the comments of another who responded. No one in their right mind envisions an invasion of mainland China nor a Chinese invasion of California. That does not preclude attacks on other places across the globe where infantry will be the decisive factor.
... need more cowbell!