The Conquering Tide

  Chapter Two

  1. Lundstrom, First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 38.

  2. Lindsay, Coast Watchers, p. 197.

  3. Lundstrom, First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 48.

  4. Entry dated August 8, 1942, p. 6, Commander Amphibious Force, Task Force 62, War Diary, August 1942, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II War Diaries,” Box 173.

  5. Lundstrom, First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 52.

  6. Sakai, Caidin, and Saito, Samurai!, p. 151.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid., p. 152.

  9. Calhoun, Tin Can Sailor, p. 53.

  10. Thomas C. Kinkaid, CCOH Naval History Project, No. 429, Vol. 1, p. 186.

  11. Wasp Action Report, “Capture of the Tulagi-Guadalcanal Area, 7–8 August, 1942,” p. 5, dated August 14, 1942, FDR Map Room Papers, Box, 178.

  12. Merillat, Island, p. 33.

  13. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 127.

  14. Donald Dickson, Major, USMCR, oral history, p. 4, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 8.

  15. “Division Commander’s Final Report on Guadalcanal Operations,” May 24, 1943, Phase II, pp. 2–5, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 25; also Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 128.

  16. Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary, p. 56.

  17. Donald Dickson, Major, USMCR, oral history, pp. 4–5, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 8.

  18. Twining and Carey, No Bended Knee, p. 73.

  19. Justice Chambers, Major, USMCR, oral history, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” p. 11.

  20. Kittredge, “Savo Island.”

  21. Lord, Lonely Vigil, p. 41.

  22. Read, “Report by Lieut. W. J. Read on Coastwatching Activity,” p. 22.

  23. Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary, p. 52.

  24. Operation Plan No. A3-42, Annex KING, in NARA, RG 38, “SOPAC Amphibious Force Diary, July 1942,” Box 173.

  25. 1st Division Administrative Order 2a-42, July 22, 1942, in ibid.

  26. Turner to Colonel James W. Webb, August 20, 1942, Richmond K. Turner Papers, Series I, correspondence, Box 1.

  27. “CruDiv 16 War Diary,” p. 1, extracted from WDC 60984, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  28. Koda, “Doctrine and Strategy of IJN.”

  29. Ibid.

  30. “CruDiv 16 War Diary,” p. 1, extracted from WDC 60984, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  31. Twining and Carey, No Bended Knee, p. 64.

  32. Charles Clarke to Samuel Eliot Morison, January 13, 1947, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 27.

  33. Smith, Battle of Savo, p. 118.

  34. Dull, Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, p. 187.

  35. Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 5, p. 37.

  36. “To CTF-44, From Executive Officer, HMAS Canberra,” CINCPAC File A16/Solomon Serial 62636, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  37. Kittredge, “Savo Island.”

  38. Toshikazu Ohmae, “The Battle of Savo Island,” in Evans, ed., Japanese Navy in World War II, p. 236.

  39. Chief of the Bureau of Ships, U.S. Navy, “U.S.S. QUINCY, U.S.S. ASTORIA and U.S.S. VINCENNES, Report of Loss in Action.”

  40. Ibid.

  41. Lt. Cmdr. Bion B. Bierer to Mary Bierer, October 16, 1942, letter in possession of Bob Begin, quoted here with his permission.

  42. Chief of the Bureau of Ships, U.S. Navy, “U.S.S. QUINCY, U.S.S. ASTORIA and U.S.S. VINCENNES, Report of Loss in Action.”

  43. “To CTF-62, From Comdesron 4,” TOR 0610z, appended to Crutchley’s report to Turner, CINCPAC File A16/Solomon Serial 62636, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  44. Rogal, Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Beyond, p. 56.

  45. Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary, p. 62.

  46. Harry L. Vincent in “Veterans’ Biographies,” p. 52.

  47. Pharmacist Frederick A. Moody, USN, p. 15, oral history, recorded at the Navy Department, April 21, 1943, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 20.

  48. Mikawa’s remarks are excerpted in Toshikazu Ohmae, “Battle of Savo Island,” in Evans, ed., Japanese Navy in World War II, p. 244.

  49. Chief of the Bureau of Ships, U.S. Navy, “U.S.S. QUINCY, U.S.S. ASTORIA and U.S.S. VINCENNES, Report of Loss in Action.”

  50. Twining and Carey, No Bended Knee, p. 69.

  51. Office of Naval Intelligence, “Battle of Savo Island,” pp. 43–44.

  Chapter Three

  1. Buell, Master of Seapower, p. 221.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Harry W. Hill, CCOH Naval History Project, No. 685, Vol. 2, p. 267.

  4. John L. McCrea, USNI Oral History Program, 1990, pp. 169–70.

  5. “Memorandum for the President, Via Admiral Leahy,” August 13, 1942, COMINCH File A16-3(1), FDR Map Room Papers.

  6. “Reinforcement of Hawaii and South Pacific Areas,” Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet to Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, memorandum dated August 13, 1942, in NARA, RG 38, “CNO Zero-Zero Files,” Box 38.

  7. Crutchley to Turner, August 10, 1942, letter enclosure in COMSOPAC to CINCPAC, “Preliminary Report Watchtown Operation,” dated August 16, 1942, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  8. COMINCH to Secretary of the Navy, September 14, 1942, “Investigation of the Loss of the U.S.S. VINCENNES, U.S.S. QUINCY, U.S.S. ASTORIA, and HMAS CANBERRA,” Richmond K. Turner Papers, Series 1, correspondence, Box 1.

  9. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 129.

  10. Fletcher to Hanson Baldwin, July 9, 1947, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Box 26.

  11. Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 5, pp. 29–30, including footnote on p. 30.

  12. Lundstrom unpacks the subject at length, concluding with a measured defense of Fletcher. See Lundstrom, Black Shoe Carrier Admiral, pp. 368–83.

  13. NARA, RG 38, “SOPAC Amphibious Force Diary,” August 15, 1942, Box 173.

  14. “War Diary, Amphibious Force SOPAC,” August 16, 1942 entry, in ibid.

  15. “War Diary, Amphibious Force SOPAC,” August 9, 1942 entry, in ibid.

  16. Vandegrift to Turner, 151015, COMSOPAC War Diary, quoted in Merillat, Guadalcanal Remembered, source note, p. 307.

  17. Rogal, Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Beyond, p. 58.

  18. “MR 203, Japanese Naval Activities,” FDR Map Room Papers, Box 64.

  19. Fletcher to COMSOPAC to CTF-61, 211120, in CINCPAC War Diary, Book 1, p. 807.

  20. Merillat, Guadalcanal Remembered, p. 152.

  21. Rogal, Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Beyond, p. 61.

  22. “Division Commander’s Final Report on Guadalcanal Operations,” May 24, 1943, Phase III, p. 1, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 25.

  23. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 132.

  24. Ibid., p. 134.

  25. Clemens, Alone on Guadalcanal, p. 196.

  26. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 136.

  27. “ 8th Fleet War Diary,” p. 1, extracted from WDC 161259/397/901, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  28. “Detailed Battle Report No. 6 of the Fifth Air Attack Force,” issued at Rabaul, September 10, 1942, extracted from WDC 161012/399.901, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  29. “Staggering Blow,” Domei News Broadcast, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  30. Hara, Saito, and Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain, p. 95.

  31. “Diary, No. 25 Air Flotilla,” pp. 3–4, extracted from WDC 161012/399.901, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  32. “Military Value of British New Guinea,” in Japanese Demobilization Bureau Records, Reports of General MacArthur, p. 24.

  33. Hara, Saito, and Pineau, Japan
ese Destroyer Captain, p. 95.

  34. “Diary, No. 25 Air Flotilla,” p. 2, extracted from WDC 161012/399.901, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  35. “Division Commander’s Final Report on Guadalcanal Operations,” May 24, 1943, Phase III, p. 6, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 25.

  36. Miller, Cactus Air Force, p. 24.

  37. “COMAIRSOPAC War Diary for August 1942,” August 13, 1942, entry, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 27.

  38. Entry dated August 13, 1942, in CINCPAC War Diary, Book 1, p. 825.

  39. David Galvan quoted in Bergerud, Fire in the Sky, p. 79.

  40. Brand, Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal, p. 67.

  41. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 139.

  42. Clemens, Alone on Guadalcanal, p. 208.

  43. Twining and Carey, No Bended Knee, p. 84.

  44. Clemens, Alone on Guadalcanal, p. 209.

  45. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 142.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Merillat, Island, p. 75.

  48. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 144.

  49. “Japanese Naval Operations; Estimate of,” Intelligence Center, Pacific Ocean Areas, July 24, 1942, in CINCPAC War Diary, Book 1, pp. 841–43.

  50. COMSOPAC to CTF-61, 220910, in ibid., p. 808.

  51. “Diary, No. 25 Air Flotilla,” extracted from WDC 161012/399.901, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  52. Harry D. Felt, USNI Oral History Program, Vol. 2, p. 109.

  53. Ibid., p. 110.

  54. “COMAIRSOPAC War Diary for August 1942,” August 24, 1942, entry, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 27.

  55. Harry D. Felt, USNI Oral History Program, Vol. 2, p. 112.

  56. “Narrative Report of Action with Enemy on August 24, 1942,” Commander, Saratoga Air Group, enclosure (e) to Saratoga Action Report, September 10, 1942, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  57. Hara, Saito, and Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain, pp. 100–101.

  58. Buell, Dauntless Helldivers, p. 122.

  59. Enterprise Action Report, September 5, 1942, p. 3, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  60. Lt. Cmdr. Keiichi Arima, in Werneth, ed., Beyond Pearl Harbor, p. 30.

  61. Enterprise Action Report, September 5, 1942, enclosure (b), “Report of Fighter Director,” in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Mears, Carrier Combat, p. 117.

  66. Thomas C. Kinkaid, CCOH Naval History Project, No. 429, Vol. 1, p. 198.

  67. Mears, Carrier Combat, p. 121.

  Chapter Four

  1. Jackson, That Man, p. 111.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Harold Smith account in Rosenau, ed., Roosevelt Treasury, p. 323.

  4. Lippmann, “Awkward Giant,” p. 9.

  5. Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, p. 202.

  6. Childs, I Write from Washington, p. 242.

  7. Congressional Record, 77th Cong., 2nd sess., Vol. 88, Part 6, pp. 5538–41.

  8. Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, p. 111.

  9. Childs, I Write from Washington, p. 312.

  10. Congressional Record, 77th Cong., 2nd sess., Vol. 88, Part 6, p. 7691.

  11. “Washington in Wartime.”

  12. Leahy, I Was There, p. 136.

  13. Donald Duncan, CCOH Naval History Project, No. 678, Vol. 7, p. 380.

  14. McIntire, White House Physician, p. 141.

  15. John L. McCrea, “Setting Up Map Room in White House and Other Incidents in Connection with Service There,” interview by W. W. Moss, March 19, 1973, p. 4, FDR Map Room Papers, Box 178.

  16. Ibid., p. 6.

  17. Dower, War Without Mercy, p. 161.

  18. Leahy, I Was There, p. 122.

  19. Entry dated April 15, 1942, in Alanbrooke, War Diaries, p. 249.

  20. Ibid., p. 246.

  21. Churchill to Roosevelt, July 9, 1942, in Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, eds., Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 222.

  22. King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, pp. 398–99.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Baldwin, “Solomons Action Develops into Battle for South Pacific.”

  25. Baldwin, “U.S. Hold in Solomons Bolstered.”

  26. Harold H. Larsen, interview in Navy Department Bureau of Aeronautics, January 18, 1943, p. 14, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 16.

  27. Bergerud, Fire in the Sky, pp. 79–80.

  28. Harold H. Larsen, interview in Navy Department Bureau of Aeronautics, January 18, 1943, p. 3, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 16.

  29. Read, “Report by Lieut. W. J. Read on Coastwatching Activity,” pp. 81–82.

  30. Joseph J. Foss, USMCR, interview in Navy Department, April 28, 1943, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 9, p. 5.

  31. Ibid., p. 6.

  32. Astor, Wings of Gold, p. 155.

  33. Joseph J. Foss, USMCR, interview in Navy Department, April 28, 1943, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 9, p. 5.

  34. Brand, Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal, pp. 95–96.

  35. Bergerud, Fire in the Sky, p. 80.

  36. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 147.

  37. Twining and Carey, No Bended Knee, p. 89.

  38. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, p. 148.

  39. Emphasis in the original. McCain to Vandegrift and Geiger, September 14, 1942, p. 1, Alexander Vandegrift Collection, Coll/3166, Box 2, folder “Correspondence Jan–Sept 1942.”

  40. McCain to Vandegrift, September 20, 1942, p. 1, ibid.

  41. Harold H. Larsen, interview in Navy Department Bureau of Aeronautics, January 18, 1943, p. 3, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 16.

  42. Buell, Dauntless Helldivers, p. 125.

  43. Bergerud, Fire in the Sky, p. 81.

  44. Buell, Dauntless Helldivers, p. 147.

  45. Clemens, Alone on Guadalcanal, p. 230.

  46. C.O. Enterprise to CINCPAC, “Action of August 24, 1942, Report of,” September 5, 1942, CV6/A16-3/(10-My), Serial 008, p. 22, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 14.

  47. CINCPAC Report, “Solomons Island Campaign—Torpedoing of SARATOGA, WASP, and NORTH CAROLINA,” Serial 03168, October 12, 1942, enclosure “Hull Damage and Damage Control Measures,” in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 17.

  48. CINCPAC Report, “Solomons Island Campaign—Torpedoing of SARATOGA, WASP, and NORTH CAROLINA,” Serial 03168, October 12, 1942, in ibid.

  49. Wolfert, Battle for the Solomons, p. 40.

  50. Cmdr. William C. Chambliss, USNR, oral history, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 6.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Lt. Chester M. Stearns, interview in November 1943 on board Baltimore, Morison’s Notebook, Pacific XII 1943, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 26.

  53. CINCPAC Report, “Solomons Island Campaign—Torpedoing of SARATOGA, WASP, and NORTH CAROLINA,” Serial 03168, October 12, 1942, enclosure “Captain Forest Sherman to Secretary of the Navy,” in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 17.

  54. Hersey, “Sinking of the Wasp.”

  55. Cmdr. William C. Chambliss, USNR, oral history, in NARA, RG 38, “World War II Oral Histories and Interviews, 1942–1946,” Box 6.

  56. Ibid.

  57. CINCPAC Report, “Solomons Island Campaign—Torpedoing of SARATOGA, WASP, and NORTH CAROLINA,” Serial 03168, October 12, 1942, in NARA, RG 38, “WWII Action and Operational Reports,” Box 17.

  Chapter Five

  1. Kokusai Shashin Joho (International Graphic Magazine), Vol. 21, No. 12, December 1, 2602 (
1942).

  2. Ibid., Vol. 21, No. 10, September 1, 2602 (1942).

  3. Hideki Tojo, speech at the War Ministry, December 8, 1942, excerpted in Tolischus, Through Japanese Eyes, p. 155.

  4. Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, former ambassador to Washington, January 22, 1943, in ibid., p. 154.

  5. Diary indicates that this occurred on December 17, 1942; see Kiyosawa, Diary of Darkness, p. 6.

  6. Hiroyo Arakawa, oral history, in Cook and Cook, eds., Japan at War, p. 179.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Sakai, Caidin, and Saito, Samurai!, p. 184.

  9. Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, p. 183.

  10. Ibid., p. 281.

  11. Ibid., p. 280.

  12. Ibid., p. 279.

  13. Junichiro Watanabe, “Isoroku Yamamoto and the Sword-smith Sadayoshi Amada,” Hisato Takeuchi, trans., Nihontocraft.com, online at http://www.nihontocraft.com/Yamamoto NBTHK.html (accessed November 2014).

  14. Reiji Masuda, oral history, in Cook and Cook, eds., Japan at War, p. 301.

  15. Entry dated August 13, 1942, in Ugaki, Fading Victory, p. 183.

  16. Entry dated August 20, 1942, in ibid., p. 186.

  17. Entry dated August 24, 1942, in ibid., p. 193.

  18. Entry dated September 1, 1942, in ibid., pp. 202–3.

  19. Entry dated August 24, 1942, in ibid., p. 193.

  20. Entry dated September 13, 1942, in ibid., p. 214.

  21. Entry dated October 7, 1942, in ibid., p. 228.

  22. Astor, Wings of Gold, p. 62.

  23. Potter, Nimitz, p. 76.

  24. Ibid., p. 236.

  25. “CINCPAC Conference in Argonne,” September 28, 1942, p. 1, Samuel Eliot Morison Papers, Coll/606, Box 24.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid., pp. 1–3.

  28. Arnold, Global Mission, pp. 360–61.

  29. Arnold to Hopkins, “Plans for Operations Against the Enemy,” September 3, 1942, Harry L. Hopkins Papers, Book 5: The Air Offensive, Box 313.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Arnold, Global Mission, p. 344.

  32. Ibid., p. 342.

  33. Vandegrift and Asprey, Once a Marine, pp. 171–72.

  34. Entry dated September 30, 1942, excerpted in Merillat, Guadalcanal Remembered, p. 159.

  35. Arthur Lamar, oral history, in Recollections of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, p. 13.

  36. Les Cleveland, “Soldiers’ Songs: The Folklore of the Powerless,” New York Folklore, Vol. 11, 1985, online at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs/les01.htm.