In 1838, the Swiss-born French general Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini published Précis de l’Art de Guerre (The Art of War) in which he listed key points for any amphibious landing:
1. The attacking force should deceive the enemy as to the point of debarkation;
2. They need to select a beach with hydrographic and terrain conditions favorable to the attacker;
3. Before landing, naval guns should be used to prepare the way for the troops and then land artillery at the earliest practicable moment;
4. Landing troops have to strenuously push the invasion forward by seizing the high ground commanding the landing area, thus securing the beachhead from enemy gun-fire; and
5. Allow a quick build-up of supplies ashore and permitting the transfer of the conflict from amphibious to land warfare.
Amphibious Assault Types
There are two primary types of amphibious assaults: shore-to-shore and ship-to-shore. In shore-to-shore operations the attacking force is loaded directly onto the landing craft and off-loaded at their target. Ship-to-shore involves embarking the troops onto transports and then off-loading them into smaller landing craft.
European Theatre of Operations
In North Africa and the European Theatre of Operations (ETO), six major amphibious operations were mounted by the Allies between November 1942 and August 1944. All six were massive undertakings involving hundreds of ships and thousands of men. The ETO, though, was primarily a land war in which amphibious operations were essential for forcibly reentering German-occupied Europe.
Pacific Theatre of Operations
The Pacific theatre was divided into two commands. The first, South-West Pacific Area (SWPC), based in Australia, covered the Philippines, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies. The second, Pacific Ocean Command (PTO), based at Pearl Harbor, covered the remainder of the Pacific and was sub-divided in to three areas: the North, Central and South Pacific Areas (SOPAC).
The Central Pacific was a maritime theater in which each new offensive required a landing to secure additional bases for further operations. The Central Pacific forces mounted ten major landings with numerous smaller ones launched to secure islands surrounding the primary target.
Southwest Pacific and South Pacific amphibious operations were different. Often an invasion force consisted of a few landing ships and craft supported by destroyers and land-based aircraft.
Beach Masters, Parties and Battalions
Controlling the flow of men and materiel onto the beach and inland was the responsibility of the Beach Master and supporting Beach Party. The ETO, PTO, SWPC, and SOPAC shared common problems, but established slightly different ways of handling them. Men in the Beach Battalions or Parties were assigned to one of four duty classifications: communications, hydrographics, boat repair, or medical.
In Europe, Naval Beach Battalions were created handle all of these duties. When a beach battalion went into action, it was organized along the lines of an Army battalion - three companies, with each company divided into three platoons whose interlocking duties embraced every phase of the battalion's task.
The Beach Parties were smaller in the PTO, SWPC, and SOPAC. In the central Pacific, the Shore Party was an integral part of a combat division and was organized around a Marine Corps Pioneer Group or Army Combat Engineer Group. The attack transport ships supplied the Beach Party elements of the Shore Party by providing a Beach Party Team of approximately two officers and thirty men to support a battalion of landing troops.
Enduring Value
The Amphibious Assault SOPs developed more than sixty years ago are valid today although it is unlikely the U.S. will need to mount a major amphibious operation in the foreseeable future.
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