Guadalcanal Marine

3. Wartime Expansion

[3] Wartime Expansion After four months of war,the ist Marine Division wasalerted to its first prospect of action. The Japanesehad already pushed the Americansoff Corregidor, Bataan, Guam,and Wake Island. The vital Samoa Island in the Pacific appeared to be next on the Japanese invasion list. The Navy called upon the Marines to provide the necessary reinforcements for the meager garrison. In March1942, headquarters created two brigades for the mission, cutting a regiment and a slice of supporting forces from each of the two Marine divisions. The 7th Marines got the nod at New River, North Carolina, and became the nucleus of the 3rd Brigade. That force initially included Lt. Col. Edson's ist Raider Battalion, but no paratroopers. In the long run that wasa plus for the ist Parachute Battalion,which remained relatively untouched as the brigade siphoned off much of the best manpower and equipment of the division to bring itself to full readiness. The division was already reeling from the difficult process of wartime expansion. In the past fewmonths it had absorbed thousands of newly minted Marines, subdivided units to create new ones, given up some of its best assets to field the raiders and parachutists, and built up a base and training areas from the pine forests of NewRiver, North Carolina. The parachutists and the remainder of the division did not have long to wait for their own call to arms. In early April, Marine Corps headquarters alerted the ist Marine Division that it would begin moving overseas inMay. [33] [ 34 ] Guadalcanal Part of the division shoved off from Norfolk in May. Some elements , including Companies Band C of the parachutists, took trains to the West Coast and boarded naval transports there on June 19. The rest of the ist Parachute Battalion waspart of a later Norfolk echelon, which set sail for New Zealand on June 10. On March 23,1942, at New River, North Carolina, Gen. Vandegrift received his second star and command of the ist Marine Division. He had already been its assistant commander. He had helped plan and conduct practice amphibious landing across the beaches at Solomon, Maryland, in January and February. But now he had full charge and he poured all his energies into raising the division from about 11,000 to its full strength of 19,000. (Vandegrift relieved Maj. Gen. Philip Torrey, who had assumed command of the division temporarily when Maj. Gen. Smith was elevated to command the Atlantic Fleets ist Joint TrainingForce.) During April 21-30,1942, before we departed for the Pacific, my unit moved by truck convoy from New River up the coastal highway(U.S. Route 17) to the navalbase at Norfolk, Virginia,wherewewent aboard a Navy ship. From there we sailed up the Chesapeake Bayto Solomon Island, Maryland, where we participated in a number of practice amphibious assault landing operation acrossthe beach near CovePoint. During this same period, rubber-boat landings were executed at Solomon's Island. Dog Company and the unwanted 8i-mm mortar platoon ist Raider Battalion sailing aboard a converted World War I four-piper destroyer of Transport Division 11 executed rubber-boat landings at Solomon's Island within the Chesapeake Bay.The raiders inflated their rubber boats, climbed down a cargo net, paddled clear of the transports, and staged a mock landing by storming the beach with their bayoneted Springfieldrifles held high. The 8i-mm mortar platoon went ashore in Higgins boats landing in a second wave. The amphibious practice landings moved to Solomon, Maryland, were originally scheduled to be conducted at New River's Onslow Beach, but they had to be moved inside the safety of the Chesapeake Wartime Expansion [35 ] Bay because German submarines were sinking Allied ships at will along the Atlantic Coast. In fact, the area off North Carolina was so dangerous it became known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." In the first half of 1942, 397 ships were torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats along the treacherous shoals off the North Carolina Outer Banks. Even more tragic, nearly 5000 people lost their lives. Hoping to prevent America from supplying its hard-pressed European allies, German submarines prowled the waters just off the North Carolina coast, torpedoing just about everything with a propeller . So many burning tankers and freighters lit up the night sky that sea lanes offshore received a new nickname, "Torpedo Alley." The World War II LibertyShips, the slow...