Eastern Mandates is a 26-page pamphlet providing an overview of the strategic setting, operations, and analysis of the Eastern Mandates, better known as the Marshall Islands. The conquest of the Marshall Islands demonstrated the soundness of American amphibious doctrine, albeit on a small scale. As with earlier operations, American planners acquired much experience in the campaign and applied new techniques which would be shaped and refined for subsequent operations. Two of the most important lessons involved close air ...
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Eastern Mandates is a 26-page pamphlet providing an overview of the strategic setting, operations, and analysis of the Eastern Mandates, better known as the Marshall Islands. The conquest of the Marshall Islands demonstrated the soundness of American amphibious doctrine, albeit on a small scale. As with earlier operations, American planners acquired much experience in the campaign and applied new techniques which would be shaped and refined for subsequent operations. Two of the most important lessons involved close air support and naval gunfire. With destruction of Japanese naval and air forces as the war progressed, and given American industry's tremendous output in ships and planes, the possibility of greatly increasing air and naval preinvasion fire support both became feasible and desirable. Another tactical advance was the introduction of specially equipped headquarters ships. Although such vessels had already appeared in the Mediterranean, they were first used in the Pacific during the Marshall Island landings. The quick seizure of the Marshall Islands allowed Admiral Nimitz to advance the date for the invasion of the Marianas by twelve to thirteen weeks. At the same time, Japanese preparation time for the defense of islands like Saipan and Tinian was shortened, and many of the U.S. units that had participated in the Marshalls operation, still relatively intact, were available for the Marianas invasion. The overall importance of the rapid seizure of the Eastern Mandates thus cannot be overestimated. The Marshalls were not only a proving ground for new tactics and innovation gut also a critical step in a chain events that would lead to the Japanese surrender at Tokyo Bay.
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