The Long-Lost Tentative Manual for Defense of Advanced Bases (1936)

Until 1998, the Tentative Manual for Defense of Advanced Bases was lost at the National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland. Originally published in 1936 by the U.S. Marine Corps Schools, this document resurfaced at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., when Marine Corps records were being shifted among archival facilities. The Tentative Manual for Defense of Advanced Bases represented the culmination of decades of doctrinal thinking in the Marine Corps about the defense of island bases against enemy amphibious, naval, and aerial assaults. The passages excerpted in this research note demonstrate that the far-sighted marines correctly conceived of effective ways to defend American bases on Wake Island, Midway, Guadalcanal, and other islands in the Pacific War.