The Eagle’s Webbed Feet

•A Maritime History of the United StatesThe Eagle’s Webbed Feet

A Maritime History of the United StatesA Maritime History of the Uniteds

Fleet Actions (3)

• Why was the USN successful?• Building capacity (see chart)• ≈ 1M rounds of ammunition for

every Axis man in uniform.• Better training• Japanese simply could not replace loses in material or manpower fast enough

• This is the likely outcome of taking on someone with an economy 8 ½ times bigger than your own!

Carriers Japan** United States

1941 9 9

1942 9 (+6/-6) 23

1943 11 (+3/-1) 88

1944 4 (+8/-13) ≈1201945 5 (no fuel, pilots, or

planes)151 (29 Fleet)

** Important to keep in mind Japan’s strategic advantage of only having to fight in one theater.

Midway at the critical moment

Kamikaze about to hit USS Missouri

Dauntless

Fast Carrier Battle Group - 1944

Avenger

Gambier Bay under attack at Leyte Gulf

Amphibious Warfare in the Pacific

Rabaul• Guadalcanal and then the Solomons• Problem: What to do about Rabaul?• Rabaul

• Combined land/sea based aircraft attack (November 1943)

• IJN losses: 6 heavily damaged cruisers and 52 aircraft

• Continued land-based attacks for the rest of the war

• ≈ 100,000 troops stuck there• Island hopping begins

Rabaul

Amphibious Campaigns (2)• Island hopping

• Gilbert & Marshall Islands (Nov ‘43 to Feb ‘44)• Tarawa (Nov ‘44)• Kwajalein (Feb ‘44)

• Operation Hailstone (Truk) (Feb 16/17, ‘44)• IJN loses: 3 CA, 4DD, 8 other warships & 32 merchants (+ 270

aircraft)• Truk is finished

• Eniwetok (488 ships) (17 – 24 Feb ‘44)• Mariana & Palau Islands (June ‘44 to Nov ‘44)

• Guam, Tinian, Saipan, & Peleliu• Submarine bases & B-29 airfields

• Ulithi (722 ships) (Sept ‘44)• Iwo Jima (Feb – Mar ‘45)

Island Hopping

1. Solomons2. Gilberts3. Marshalls4. Marianas5. Palaus6. Iwo Jima7. Okinawa

Α TrukΒ RabaulC EniwetokD Ulithi

1

2

35

67

4

A

B

C

Operation GalvanicTarawaNov, 1943

Marshall IslandsKawajaleinEniwetokFeb. ‘44

Marianas, Saipan, GuamJune – July 1944

Palaus,Peleliu,Oct-Nov: ‘44

Iwo Jima,Feb-Mar, 1945

OkinawaApr – June ‘45

D

USS Mississinewa after successful Kaiten attack

Ulithi Atoll

Truk under attack

Amphibious warfare in the Pacific

Buna Beach, New Guinea

Tarawa

Amphibious Campaigns (2)

• At the same time MacArthur’s forces were moving up New Guinea

• US Army & Australian forces

• 51 separate battles including air, sea, & land battles

• Morotai Island (Sept ‘44)

• Take or bypass the Philippines??

Invasion of the Philippines

(October ’44)

Operation Iceberg• Okinawa – April/June 1945• Largest amphibious operation in history

• 1300 warships (45 different types)• 287,000 soldiers & marines

• Highest number of casualties in any Pacific battle

• Japanese military – 77,000• US military – 14,000• Civilian – 150,000 (1/3 of the population)

"Nimitz's problem differed from MacArthur's. The latter was land-based, but Nimitz had to move his base along with him, which meant that his fleet had to be both his base of operations and his striking force. It was therefore a four-fold organization - a floating base, a fleet, an air force, and an army, combined in one. That it was designed, built and assembled within 18 months of the Battle of Midway Island is without question the greatest organizational feat of naval history.“

J.F.C. Fuller

USS New Mexico get hit by a Kamikaze

The War Ends• US Navy includes:

• 2450 commissioned ships total• 1194 major combat vessels• 1256 Amphibious transports

• 41,000 aircraft• 3.4M personnel

“Under your leadership as Commander in Chief, the United States Navy has grown with unprecedented speed into the most powerful in all the world.”

Note from the British Chiefs of Staff to Adm. King

Surrender on boardUSS Missouri

A Super Power’s Navy“There's no reason for having a Navy and Marine Corps.”

“Underway on nuclear power”

The End of the Navy (again)• By 1948 – there were 267 (1/5) major combat vessels & ½ million sailors (1/7)

• Budgetary attrition (again)• 1947 – National Security Act created the DoD with a SecDef

• James Forrestal - Tried to implement but ran in to serious inter-service rivalry issues• Air Force wanted control of Naval Aviation and all nuclear weapons• Army wanted the Marines• Navy didn’t want to change at all• Reduced budget = increasingly nasty fight for resources

• March 1949 – Louis Johnson becomes SecDef • Two jobs: Reduce funding & unify the services• One month later he cancels the USS United States• Triggers the “Revolt of the Admirals”• Navy becomes paranoid• Marine Air

Forrestal

USS United States(8x14)

Louis Johnson John Sullivan

B - 36 The Revolt of the Admirals

Burke

Denfield

Gallery

“…….there has been a navy reluctancein the interservice marriage,an over-ardent army, a somewhat exuberant air force... It may well be stated that the committee findsno unification Puritans in the Pentagon."

HASC findings:

“There's no reason for having a Navy and Marine Corps. ……amphibious operations are a thing of the past. We'll never have any more amphibious operations. That does away with the Marine Corps. And the Air Force can do anything the Navy can do……. so that does away with the Navy.”

—Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson, December 1949

(It may not be paranoia if they’re really out to get you)

Reality Check• No real danger to the Marine Corps

• Congressional support too strong• Danger to the Navy was real enough

• What enemy actually exists?• Nuclear weapons• What’s not needed?

• Naval Aircraft• Submarines

• What’s left?• “Escort service?”

Korean War• All this Washington fun is interrupted by Kim II-sung• June 1950 – North Korean invades the South

• UN mandated “Police Action” (22 nations sent troops)• Pusan perimeter• Navy’s role

• 7th Fleet sent to protect Taiwan• Establish sea supremacy (USS Juneau – July 1950)• Ground-Air support from carriers• Supply the perimeter• Gunfire support

• Inchon – September 1950• Completely changed the nature of the war

USS Juneau

INCHON

Korean War (2)• Chinese Intervention – October 1950

• Chosin Reservoir (Nov/Dec) (13,000 casualties vs. 50,000)

• Hungnam evacuation• 100,000 troops + 90,000 civilians• 17,500 vehicles• 350,000 tons of “stuff”

• Settled into a war of attrition• Both side could provide unlimited supplies• Finally they quit because there was nothing to be

gained• However, the Korean War “saved” the Navy

• No nukes

Hungnam

Korean War

Post- Korean War• NSC -68 (approved in 1951)

• Containment• “…a rapid and sustained buildup ….of naval strength”

• 6 larger “super” carriers• Built 20 in all since 1955• 11 still in service

• Navy keeps getting called on • Lebanon – 1958• Quemoy & Matsu – 1958• Cuba - 1962

Submarines• 1955 – Nautilus commissioned

• Rickover’s influence• A true RMA

• 1958 – Soviet Union launches its first nuclear submarine

• The race is on!• Two completely different types (by

function)• Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs)• Attack Submarines (SSNs)

USS Nautilus

November

SSBNs• Hotel launched in 1959• Raborn & the Polaris program

• George Washington launched in 1960• Two missile launch in the summer• First patrol in November 1960

• “41 for freedom” over the next 8 years

• SALT, Poseidon, & MIRVs – 1972• Trident 1 – 1979• Ohio Class - 1979

K-19

George Washington

SSNs• After much experimentation, US

settled on a basic design• Thresher & Sturgeon class boats

• Submarine killers• Intelligence gathering• Substantial advantage over Soviet

models• Los Angeles (need for speed)• Walker & Pelton spying• Soviet “crash” program to catch

up in the 80s.

Acoustic Advantage

USSoviet

US Soviet

Nw = Ls – (Le – Ndi)

Viet Nam• Naval Forces operated in five distinct types of operations

• Marines along the DMZ • Seal Team 1 (up to 8 platoons)• Yankee/Dixie Station (Tactical & strategic carrier flight operations)• “Market Time” (Coastal interdiction)• Riverine warfare (the “brown water navy”)

• First naval advisors arrived in 1950• August 1964 – Tonkin Gulf incident (Maddox & Turner Joy)

• The subsequent bombing raid resulted in the first pilot killed and the first POW.

• The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Viet Nam (2)• At it’s peak, there were 85,000 Marines and 38,000 sailors there

• 14834 Marines were killed• 2570 sailors were killed • 551 aircraft were lost (with 450 aviators killed or made POWs)

• The war was having a very bad effect on overall Navy readiness• Money was going to the war that was badly needed to build and sustain ships. • The growth envisioned in NSC-68 and seen in the late 50’s and the 60’s was

stopped and reversed.• At the same time, the Soviet Union was rapidly building up an ocean going

fleet of significant capability under Adm Gorshkov.• January 1973 – Ceasefire and withdrawal

Viet Nam

“The flag of the Soviet Navy flies over the oceans of the world. Sooner or later, the United States will have to understand it no longer has mastery of the seas.”

The Grim 70’s• Adm. Zumwalt becomes CNO (70-74)

• Z-grams• Race riots, violence, threats and disobedience.• High-end, low-end ships

• By 1975, there are 460 commissioned vessels TOTAL.• Lowest number since before Pearl Harbor.• Many are outdated• Retention has become a real problem

• AND, the Soviets just keep on building.• In 1974, Jimmy Carter is elected

• Annapolis grad; should be a big Navy supporter• However, he did not see the Soviet Union as a threat.• Believed that if we limit defense spending, so would the Russians. (Jefferson again?)• So, slash away some more

A flotilla of Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates (The “low-end” of the high-low mix)

Rebuilding (again)• In 1979, Carter reverses course and issues the “Carter Doctrine”

• The US would repel a Russian assault on the Persian Gulf “…by any means available –including military force.”

• Now we just needed to be able to back it up (???)• Carter begins a buildup (Step one: Major increase in salary)

• Reagan elected – 1980• Greatly accelerates the military buildup.• Proposes a $500B nine year program to create a 600 ship navy.

• 12 Carrier Battle Groups (with updated aircraft)• 4 Surface Action Groups (built around re-commissioned battleships)• 10 Replenishment groups• 100 Attack Submarines• Enough amphibious capacity to lift 1 ½ Marine Divisions

CBG

ESG

SAG/RG

Victory in the Cold War• Soviets view the Reagan buildup as an existential threat

• By 1985, 70% of Soviet industrial output was military (US – 7%)• To survive, they felt they must protect their strategic weapons from two

(as they see it) existential threats:• SDI (Star Wars)• Submarines

• Efforts to plug these two perceived gaps were hideously expensive.• With this effort, on top of agriculture failures, oil price reductions,

and the already huge other military expenditures, the system collapsed.

• NSC-68 had worked

Soviet Budget Busters

End of Cold War Summary• US Navy reflects its status as the only super power’s navy.

• No other navy or reasonable combination of navies could hope to do battle with it.

• Historically this is the signal for yet another terminal decline. • Did not happen • Almost constant warfare since the end of the cold war• However, if we see the end of these wars, there will be an almost guaranteed

push to cut and slash as there has always been at the end of our wars.• Right now the push is between “war fighting” and “readiness”. There has not

been enough money to do both. Readiness has suffered.

Course Summary• The United States is and will continue to be a maritime nation

• 70% of the globe is water• 80% of the world’s people live near the ocean• 90% of the world’s trade moves by water

• The United States and its Navy have moved in parallel trajectories• Their power and influence have expanded in sync with each other

• While there has been general agreement on the need for a navy since 1815, roles, missions and resources have always been problematic.

• This uncertainty will continue for the foreseeable future.• In the modern world, the need for a navy will come much faster and the ability to

build (up) one will be slower and more expensive.• Policy makers need to understand this.

• Will we have learned our lesson?

I learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from my students.

The Talmud

Questions or Comments?

The Eagle’s Webbed FeetFleet Actions (3)Slide Number 3Amphibious Warfare in the PacificRabaulAmphibious Campaigns (2)Slide Number 7Slide Number 8Slide Number 9Amphibious Campaigns (2)Slide Number 11Operation IcebergSlide Number 13Slide Number 14The War EndsA Super Power’s NavyThe End of the Navy (again)Slide Number 18Slide Number 19Slide Number 20Slide Number 21 Reality CheckKorean WarSlide Number 24Korean War (2)Slide Number 26Post- Korean WarSubmarinesSSBNsSSNsAcoustic AdvantageViet NamViet Nam (2)Slide Number 34Slide Number 35The Grim 70’sSlide Number 37Rebuilding (again)Slide Number 39Victory in the Cold WarSlide Number 41End of Cold War SummaryCourse SummaryI learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from my students.�� The TalmudSlide Number 45