Part II Session 4 “Tyranny of Distance in the Pacific”

1 “Tyranny of Distance in the Pacific”

• The tyranny of distance: That is the failure to recognize the natural limits upon human endeavors imposed by geography. – G. Blainey 1968, MacMillian

• This session ― how the US overcame geographical limits.

• Start with the US Navy’s Plan Orange to combat the Japanese in the Pacific. 2 Navy’s Mid‐War Years [1920s‐1930s] Plan Orange Was Expanded Into Joint WW II Plan • Marine Corps to seize bases in Micronesia. • Evolution of the fast carrier groups. • Navy’s construction battalions, the Seabees. • US submarine service. • Joint/Technical innovation: Long range B‐29s. – Only the US possessed the materials and factories to build this aircraft. Material in one B‐29 equaled an entire squadron of Me‐109s [12 to 16 fighters]. • Joint/Technical innovation: Long range P‐51s. ― Deployment to Iwo Jima of P‐51s with Packard built Merlin engines and external fuel tanks permitting the 2000 mile round trip flight with the B‐29s to Japan.

3 How Does the Tyranny of Distance Fit Into Engineers of Victory? • Amphibious crafts • Fleet/Ship build‐up • Navigation and Communications over long stretches of ocean • Rapid construction during combat • Medical advances • The construction and deployment of the B‐29 and further deployment of the long range P‐51 • The Atomic Bomb

4 Japanese Contradictions • To the Japanese the major item of the WW II was the 1937 push into China. This was the Japanese Army’s echo of the Prussian tradition of holding continental land mass, as the essence of a grand strategy. • Pearl Harbor was to be a short campaign to expel the Allies [US, UK, Dutch and the French] from East Asia. • Japanese Pacific and SW Asia war expansion only lasted a short six months –Dec 1941 to June 1942. • The bulk of their Army was on the Chinese mainland. Similar to most German forces in east vs Russia. • Japanese forces the US encountered were predominantly Naval, spread thin over an outer boundary of islands.

5 Japanese Circumstances • To start: The US is self‐sufficient, Japan is not. • Geography was completely different, there was no concentrated Japanese force near outbound US convoys even in the early phase of the war. – Mid Pacific supplies went to Hawaii and followed protecting US Naval forces west and southwest. – Southwest Pacific supplies went south of Fiji on the way to Australia, beyond range of most Jap subs. • Japanese warrior mentality considered it un‐ warrior like to attack merchantman vs. attacking war ships. • USS Indianapolis

• Later in the war the Japanese Army insisted the sub6 force be used to supply isolated/bypassed Army This is an early British Antenna

240 feet 300 feet Receiver Transmitter Antennas in Perspective 7 SCR‐270 [1939 design]: Similar to the model That detected the attacking Pearl Harbor planes raid about half an hour before the attack commenced.

It was the Army's first operational early warning long‐distance radar and was deployed around the world, but had little operational use. The ‐270 versions were later replaced by newer units after the was introduced to the US during the Tizard Mission. The only early warning system of the sort to see action was the AN/CPS‐1, which was available in late 1944. 8 President Roosevelt to Congress December 9th 1941 • “…… No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. ….. • With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph ‐‐ so help us God. ….”

9 Battlefield Midway Prelude VHS clip

10 A –From western China B –From India Burma through SE Asia C –Through Southwest Pacific D –Through the central Pacific Four Allied Counter‐Attack Options for the Route to

Japan – Not Necessarily Mutually Exclusive 11 Advantages of Exercising Two Options • Options C and D had mutually beneficial effects. • They tied down a large number of Japanese Soldiers and caused the Japanese Navy to constantly move back and forth over vast distances in response to the various probes and attacks. • It protected the US supply route to Australia • Politically C gave General MacArthur a large role. He wanted a triumphal return the Philippines. Not necessarily on the road to Tokyo.

12 After WW I, When All Budgets Were Slashed, the Marine Corps Had to Explain Why It Was Needed • Marine Corps has Naval functions ― But, largest naval force is non‐hostile England. • Japan had the only Navy to compete with the US, it was the raison d'état for the Navy’s size and budget. • USMC; however, shrunk in the 1920s. In 1939 was given an specific amphibious task in Plan orange. • The Marines claim to be a special fighting force, not just a second level gendarmerie, relied upon a Japanese threat. • Given an amphibious task, how would it be accomplished? 13 Fudging the WWII Time Interval ― the Higgins Boat

• The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. • USMC, always interested in finding better ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious landing, and frustrated that the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair could not meet its requirements, began to express interest in 1938 in a civilian craft ‐ the Higgins boat design. • There was limited production, but, it lacked an easy way to get off the boat. • In early 1941 Navy and Marine Corps officers viewed a Japanese front ramp shallow draft boat in China. • This design was sent to Higgins and the LCVP build began.14 Higgins Landing craft

Displacement: 18,000 lb Length: 36 ft 3 in Beam: 10 ft 10 in Draft: 3 ft aft , 2 ft 2 in forward Propulsion: Gray Marine diesel engine, 225 hp or Hall‐Scott gasoline engine, 250 hp Speed: 12 knots Capacity: 6,000 lb vehicle or 8,100 lb general cargo Troops: 36 troops Crew: 4 Armament: 2 × .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns

The LVCP, LVT and the DUWK have similarities and similar and differences

15 USMC‐Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT)

• The LVT had its origins in a civilian rescue vehicle called the Alligator. Developed by Donald Roebling in 1935, the Alligator was intended to operate in swampy areas, inaccessible to both traditional cars and boats. In 1937 Roebling built a redesigned vehicle with greatly improved water speed.

• The USMC which had been developing amphibious warfare doctrine based on the ideas of Lt. Col. Earl Hancock "Pete" Ellis and others, became interested in the machine after learning about it through an article in Life magazine and convinced Roebling to design a more seaworthy model for military use.

• After more improvements, to meet Navy requirements , LVT deliveries started in 1941. A rear ramp was added in 1943 and the tracks were improved to work better over coral.

• Originally intended solely as cargo carriers for ship to shore operations, they rapidly evolved into assault troop and fire support vehicles as well. Initially carried 18 troops with mods increased to 30.

• 18,620 were built by FMC/Borg‐Warner. Many mods and armament variants

• Initially used in Guadalcanal , then Tarawa, Marianas, Iwo Jima, Philippines 16 17 The Navy Had Something of A Jump And Large Ships were not built on an Assembly Line—Yet • President Roosevelt had a Navy background • In 1940 England had the largest Navy and was updating • The US had the second largest Navy, but stagnant for 20 years and split between two oceans • Japan had the third largest but modernized during the 1930s • 1936 US Maritime Commission bill for construction of a merchant fleet to “support” the Navy in time of war • Shipyard stimulus program. Our merchant fleet had deteriorated from the WWI build up. • Ships were huge consumers of material • In 1940, Navy begins to lay the keels for what will be 22 large Essex class carriers. • And aircraft to fly off them. • 1939 Construction of two large dry‐docks at Pearl Harbor 18 US Naval Growth

• 1940 about 480 ships • 1945 about 6800 ships and boats – Including about 2500 amphibious ships and boats – Mass production techniques are used US WW II Submarine Fleet • From 1936 to 1945 the US Navy built 255 submarine in a number of classes. • Almost all were use in the Pacific against Japan. 19 Fast Carrier Groups/F6F

• The sea west of Hawaii, North of New Guinea to Japan is a distance greater than from Ireland to the Ukraine. • Ordered in 1940 ‐ 24 Essex Class Carriers and Grumman F6F Hellcat aircraft, and later models, designed to operate from them. • F6F flew > 66,000 combat sorties, destroyed 5126 Japanese aircraft (75% of those downed) with a loss of 270. More than 12,274 were built. • The F6F became the predominant Navy fighter through the work of a small team of engineers at Grumman who replace the original engine, much like the P‐51 story. 20 Pacific Aircraft Demands • Reference: Earlier discussion on slow build up of B‐17 and B‐24s. • Gen. MacArthur's SW pacific campaign needed long range bomber to span the Island distances and fly over the impenetrable jungles. • These same B‐17 and B‐24s were in the AAC Air Staff’s plan to prove the validity of Strategic bombing in Europe. – The early Pacific campaign had no strategic air targets. • Only in 1945 with the Naval advance into the Marianas and the B‐29’s arrival did strategic bombing come to the Pacific.

21 Admiral Ben Moreell Father of the SeaBees • Career Navy, 1937 appointed by Roosevelt to be Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. • Thinking ahead, built two large dry‐docks at Pearl Harbor in 1939. • December 1941 recommended to the President that there be Naval Construction Battalions (CBs), commanded by Civil engineers and staffed with skilled construction workmen (60 building trades) who would be in the Navy. Most were in their 30s but a few in their 60s sneaked through. • Established training centers to keep the units staffed. • Construimus, Batuimus ‐ We build, we fight

22 WW II Seabee Accomplishments • More than 325,000 men served with the Seabees fighting and building on six continents and more than 300 islands. • In the Pacific, where most of the construction work was needed, the Seabees landed soon after the Marines and built major airstrips, bridges, roads, gasoline storage tanks, and Quonset huts for warehouses, hospitals, and housing. • They often operated under fire and frequently were forced to take part in the fighting to defend themselves and their construction projects. • #s: In the Pacific Theater they built 111 major airstrips and 441 piers, storage tanks for >100m gallons of fuel, housing for 1.5m men and hospitals for 70,000 patients • Accomplished a major portion of the Normandy invasion Mulberry Harbor and wharves installations. 23 Technology Didn’t solve everything Naval Communication Difficulties Could not repeal the Laws of Physics •Short range ship‐to‐ship, ship to nearby aircraft, and aircraft‐to‐aircraft voice communication channels in 1944 were mostly on VHF radio frequencies (30 to 300 megahertz) and these were line of sight or a little more. •The longer distance communications were on the HF radio frequencies. The shortwave frequencies (1.8 to 30 megahertz) usually have predictable distances depending on the time of day. •An example is frequencies around 4 MHz are very reliable for 200 to 300 mile communications around six o'clock in the afternoon. The same distance can be done in the morning hours using frequencies around 7 MHz. •One of the main players in the radio distance games is the solar sunspot cycle. Unfortunately for Adm. Halsey and company in 1944, the ten year sunspot cycle (#18) was just beginning with few sunspots. The ionosphere was not loaded with charged particles and the reflections were weak if not totally missing some times. •Therefore quality long distance HF radio communications were not predictable with the resulting consequences.

24 Medical Advances

25 Medical Developments Driven by WW II

• WW II medicine, driven by sheer necessity, accelerated natural advances to huge advances. • War, by producing so many and such appalling casualties, and by creating such widespread conditions in which disease can flourish, confronted the medical profession with an enormous challenges and the doctors of the world rose to the challenge magnificently. • "If any good can be said to come of war, then WW II must go on record [in a perverse way] as assisting and accelerating one of the greatest blessings that the 20th Century has conferred on Man ‐ huge advances in medical knowledge and surgical techniques even

thou they came at such an unfathomable price.” 26 Key Medical Advances

• For the first time since WW I, medical production was put onto a war footing so that the required quantity and variety of supplies were produced. • The first effective sulfur drug became available for a variety of infections. • While penicillin had been discovered pre‐war; it took the war to develop production on a highly effective industrial scale. By 1945, its strength and purity had been expanded 20X.

27 Key Medical Advances

• Penicillin dressings vastly reduced the chance of a wound getting infected and greatly increased survival chances. • Readily available morphine and other painkillers. • An other major WW II development was the treatment of those who had received severe wounds, particularly burns. Including pioneering work [now taken for granted] on skin grafts and 'biogenic agents' that encouraged healing and the re‐growth of a damaged areas.

28 Key Medical Advances • WW II saw the growth of the whole blood/plasma transfusion service from a relatively primitive organization at the start of the war to a sophisticated well‐oiled machine at the end, storing blood and distributing it to where it was needed. • Though work on tetanus had started in WW I, widespread immunization was developed and refined in the war years, dramatically reduced the risk of occurrence. • Not the least, front line staff training and facility planning to handle causalities.

29 Hospital Ship Capabilities

• Optometry lab • Dental services • A morgue • Later, a deck for landing ambulance helicopters • Side ports that allow for easy retrieval of patients from the seas

30 International Treaty Legal status • Hospital ships displayed Large Red Crosses to signify their Geneva convention protection under the laws of war. • Even so, marked vessels have not been completely free from attack. During World War II, non‐combatant markings did not stop the sinking 24 hospital ships by both sides. The British attacked German and Italian ships. Most were pre‐Pearl Harbor. • One Australian hospital ship was attacked in 1943. • 10 April 1945, USS Comfort (AH‐6) was struck by a Japanese Kamikaze plane off Okinawa. A total of 28 people were killed, including several of the ship's surgeons, six nurses and seven patients. Another 48 people were wounded, and there was extensive damage to the ship.

31 Hospital Ships • Registered under the Geneva convention‐non combatant. • Not new to WWII, but exponentially ahead of the past. • The Services began a scramble in early 1942 for hospital ships as they were not in the build‐up planning. • By 1945, 27 Army and Navy ships were in operation. • Army ships primarily for evacuation back to US. • Navy ships functioned as full floating hospitals reflecting Pacific island hopping invasions. • Initially converted passenger liners, later more extensively modified liners. • Served from 100 to 500 patients.

32 “Grey hull” LSTs were used to increase the capacity of the medical care system. • A number of LSTs were converted into the LST(H), modified for use by forward surgical teams to stabilize the wounded. Given the intensity of the warfare and the shortage of true hospital ships, LST(H)s became essential in providing quick, early, lifesaving treatment for the combat wounded close to the battlefield. • In the Philippines LSTs were beached as unprotected surgical centers after unloading. Then with surgical teams provided casualty care. • Planners saw the value of holding one or two in reserve, to commit to beaches that were overwhelmed with casualties or without medical facilities. • At Normandy, all LSTs were equipped to handle returning casualties and 54 were outfitted to perform surgery. Others were subsequently equipped to serve as casualty‐control ships, regulating the backflow of the wounded to rear facilities afloat and ashore, and one was made a floating blood bank. 33 Hospital LSTs

• Hospital LSTs were able to provide sophisticated surgical care in a relatively safe environment close to shore. • Even thought unmarked [no Red Cross] and operating without Geneva Convention protection, they performed effectively, even under fire at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. • When the LST(H) could not be landed on the beach, casualties were evacuated to the LST using smaller vessels such as the DUKW. As soon as possible, casualties were evacuated from the LST to a hospital ship.

34 The Quest for the Golden Hour

• From combat to field hospital was typically 14 hours. • The 1945 deployment of 200 Sikorsky R‐4 helicopters to the Philippines was its first Medevac use, one pilot and one wounded soldier. • Platforms were built on hospital ship decks and wounded went from the from the front directly to the ship.

35 Final Attack on the Home Islands The B‐29 Campaign and Carrier Attacks

Kobe, Japan after fire bombing raid

Japanese Good Luck Flag Generals LeMay & Hansell36 Pacific Strategic Bombardment

• Strategic bombing‐‐attacks against the mainland industrial base of Japan‐‐during the early years of the Pacific war was beyond the range of US bombers and carriers. • A few raids on far northern Japan from the Aleutian Islands. • The first bombing mission against the Japanese main islands since the Doolittle Raid in 1942 was launched from Chinese airfields in January 1945, with poor results. [Seven B‐29 supply runs from India required for one combat run]. • Turning point! The capture of Guam, Saipan and Tinian (1700 miles one way to Japan) in the Marianas Islands and Iwo Jima further north on the fringe of the Japanese Home Islands provided usable B‐29 airbases closer to Japan.

37 Atomic Bomb Flight Routes from Tinian to Japanese Home Islands

There is discussion that Iwo Jima was invaded to provide an emergency landing field for B‐29s carrying both conventional the A‐Bombs.

B‐29 engines were unreliable. 2,200 emergency landing were made [10 crew per aircraft x 2,200] and the US only had two A bombs. Cost: 6,000 dead and 12,000 wounded Marines

38 39 Mount Suribachi The long range P‐51 arrives on the scene

Serendipity: An early British requirement, superb aeronautical design, high octane gas, the Roles‐Royce Merlin engine and external fuel drop tanks 40 7 April 1945, first P‐51s that accompanied a B‐29 formation all the way to Japan and back to Tinian. That day 200 B‐29s were accompanied by 100 P‐51s. 27 Japanese fighter were intercepted by that mission and destroyed. Naval Carrier Attacks on the Japanese Home Islands • By February 1945 US and newly Arrived British fleets and carriers surrounded the Home Islands. • 1300 Carrier based aircraft began daily sweeps of Japanese airfields, but many were secured in caves.

42 Was there a magic bullet?

• The inexorable combat path was leading to a US, British and the Commonwealth (Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India) and Russian invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. • Was there a magic bullet to avoid this?

43 Early British Research on the A‐Bomb and Collaboration • The greatest secret of them all. • In 1940 two refugee German scientists, Drs. Otto Frisch* and Rudolf Peierls, working in U of , England calculated that 10 KGs of U235 would be sufficient to build a nuclear bomb. • Drs. Tizard and Blackett were both involved with the British decision to the began research. But by 1942 the British realized it was too much for them and increased collaboration with the US. • British research data and scientists moved to the US and actively participated on the development of the Bomb. 44 *H idth t fi i The Engineers and Managers of Victory Who Built the Three Legs of the Atomic Bomb • Albert Einstein’s 1939 letter to President Roosevelt–initiates the and the Bomb. Dr. and the NDRC. • The 1940 mindset of the Air Corps Staff that the defense may not succeed and the US and the Western Hemisphere may be alone –the impetus for the B‐29: 5000 mile range, 5000 lbs bomb load. • Silver Plate program, specially modified B‐29s to carry the 10,000 lbs A‐bomb, by the 509th Composite Wing under the command of Col Paul Tibbitts. 45 On August 6 and 9, 1945, specially A New Age, the Rubicon modified B‐29s, flown by the 509th Composite Group, carried out two had been crossed! of the final strategic bombing missions of the war.

On those days only 6 B‐29s flew over Japan.

A single atomic bomb was dropped first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki.

There were conventional raids Fat Man explodes over flown on the days before, between Nagasaki after being and after these A‐bombs were delivered by the B‐29 dropped. Bockscar. The Emperor made a political

decision and Japan “accepted the46 Potsdam terms” days later. Ma Boeing B‐29‐45‐MO Superfortress, Enola Gay, Today

47 Enola Gay

48 • Aerial view of Hiroshima July 20, 1946, one year after the atomic bomb blast shows some small amount of reconstruction amid much ruin on. • The slow pace of rebuilding is attributed to a shortage of building equipment and materials. (AP Photo/Charles P. Gorry) 49 Atomic Bomb Inventory • In August 1945, after three years of work and one test [NM, Trinity Site/plutonium], the US only had two operational bombs on Tinian. – One enriched uranium design: Little Boy, Hiroshima – One plutonium design: Fat Man, Nagasaki • A third bomb, plutonium design, was near completion. Conflicting schedule narratives [10‐30 days] to construct and transport the various components. • It was being hurried strategically: The Japanese had to believe we had a large supply of A‐Bombs.

50 1. History Channel 2. Victory at Sea VCR tapes

51 Current Footnote

• Dec 30, 2013, Washington Post article: The US Army’s Pacific Commander, General Vinson K. Brooks, recognized and commented on the “Tyranny of Distance in the Pacific” in discussing the Army’s new Pacific Pathways Initiative on moving Army forces further west and initiating training to be better prepared for possible future more limited scope actions. • He wants to make his forces more maritime and expeditionary. • Isn’t that the Marine’s responsibility?

52 Remarkable Symbiosis of the Combined Efforts of Engineers and Managers WWII was concluded in the Pacific by a chain of events:

•The transformation of American planning and industry. •The assembly of a B‐29 in a massive factory. •The instrument of victory was a B‐29 carrying an Atomic Weapon, the most far reaching technological advance in WW II. •Which took off on its fateful over‐night flight from one of Tinian’s runways so recently laid out by the Seabees. •So recently captured by the Marines, and •Protected in turn by the Navy’s fast carriers.

53 Observation

• A Very Scientific Victory • WW II Commanders, contrary to earlier tradition, permitted and encouraging “Civilian and Military Tinkerers” in mid‐level ranks. • There was a confluence of Allied designs, ingenuity, industrialization, organizations, logistics coupled with the happenstance of geography and over‐extension by the Axis.

54 Conclusion • WW II was the most intense period of conflict and industrialization in history. • The Allies were almost totally over‐run in 1939/1941. The US went through a bleak first 6 months in 1942. • But, by1942 US war production industrialization had already been under way for several years. • Neither England, the US nor Russia surrendered. • There was no one invention that won WW II, even the Atomic Bomb. • Victory came about through the vast relentless Allied military needs satisfied by thousands of new inventions developed and produced by: The Engineers and Managers of Victory

55 56 Iwo Jima

 MidMid wayway toto JapanJapan  USMCUSMC 1919 FebFeb‐‐1616 MarMar 4545  6891 killed; 18,070 wounded  Neutralized fighter airfields and RADAR site  21,000+ Jap. Troops KIA  New bases for US P‐51s (ops start 11 Mar)  EmergencyEmergency fieldfield forfor crippledcrippled BB‐‐29s29s  First B‐29 emergency landing, 4 Mar 45  Eventually, 2251 aircraft landed there  Saved 10‐20,000 airmen Comparison of Japanese cities to US cities indicating size and loss

58 MacArthur's Strategic Strategy was to first invade the southern Island of Kyushu, which was separated from most of the Japanese forces and would be more difficult to reinforce. 59