U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945

610 Pages·2001·3.41 MB·English

by  Gordon L. Rottman

U.S. MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
ORDER OF BATTLE:
Ground and Air Units in
the Pacific War,
1939–1945
GORDON L. ROTTMAN
GREENWOOD PRESS

U.S. MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
ORDER OF BATTLE
Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War,
1939–1945
GORDON L. ROTTMAN
Foreword by Benis M. Frank
GREENWOODPRESS
Westport,Connecticut●London
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Rottman,GordonL.
U.S.MarineCorpsWorldWarIIorderofbattle:groundandairunitsinthePacific
War,1939–1945/GordonL.Rottman;forewordbyBenisM.Frank.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–313–31906–5(alk.paper)
1. UnitedStates.MarineCorps—Organization. 2. UnitedStates.Marine
Corps—Aviation. 3. WorldWar,1939–1945—Campaigns—PacificOcean. 4. United
States.MarineCorps—Registers. 5. UnitedStates.MarineCorps—History—WorldWar,
1939–1945. I. Title.
D767.R6797 2002
940.54'26—dc21 2001016058
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:2)2002byGordonL.Rottman
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,without
theexpresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2001016058
ISBN:0–313–31906–5
Firstpublishedin2002
GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
TM
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
TotheMarinesofWorldWarII,whethertheystormedabeachwithrifle
inhand,cockedacannon,boredholesthroughthesky,bulldozedcoral,
totedrationboxes,stooddeckwatchaboardacruiser,ormountedguard
on an obscure Navy base. They bled and sweated for the nation and
created a legacy that has inspired all Marines to follow in their
boondockers’trackstobe“SemperFidelis”toagratefulnation.

Contents
Foreword by Benis M. Frank ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 U.S. Marine Corps Organizational Profile 1
2 U.S. Marine Corps Shore Establishment 41
3 Fleet Marine Force 77
4 Amphibious Corps and Forces; Marine Divisions, Brigades, and
Tactical Groups 100
5 Fleet Marine Force Ground Units 158
6 Fleet Marine Force Ground Unit Operations 261
7 Marine Corps Aviation Profile 383
8 Marine Corps Aviation Units 417
9 Fleet Marine Force Aviation Unit Campaign Participation 456
Appendixes 511
Notes on Sources 581
Selected Bibliography 583
Index 589

Foreword
U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific
War, 1939–1945, represents a deep, searching, massive research effort by the au-
thor to produce exactly what the title suggests. The book is extremely well or-
ganized, delineating the many changes that occurred in the course of the war.
As I found when preparing the T/O appendixes for several of the volumes in
the History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II series, aviation
units were difficult to track, and squadron designations were likely to change
whenthetypesofaircraftflownbythesquadronschanged.Nonetheless,despite
these problems and myriad others, Rottman has done an excellent job in noting
all these aviation and ground changes.
The acronym SELDOM represents the six elements—strength, equipment, lo-
cation, disposition, organization, and movement—that comprise a table of or-
ganization of the tactical formation of a military command. As might be
surmised, it is particularly important for a G-2 section to acquire this data in
combat, for these elements regarding an enemy are important to a combat com-
mander as he formulates his plans. This type of information is found in most
official World War II campaign histories, and even in some popular histories,
but it only applies to the period for which the combat is covered. The mere fact
thatthisvolumerepresentsthetableoforganizationchangesofallMarineCorps
units in World War II gives it its importance.
What Gordon Rottman has presented in this volume are the T/O changes of
all World War II Marine Corps units, air and ground. As the Pacific War pro-
gressed, the organization of the Marine division, as well asofsubordinateunits,
underwent numerous changes to reflect revisions and new developments in the
conduct of amphibious assaults. For example, although unit designation re-
mained the same, there was considerable difference in the structure and organ-
ization of the 1st Marine Division that landed on Guadalcanal in August 1942
and the 1st Marine Division that landed on Okinawa three years later. All other