Marine Amphibious Corps

The V Amphibious Corps invaded Iwo Jima in February 1945. It was a costly campaign waged against an enemy entrenched in a superlative defensive system. But as one Marine Corps historian has stated ... 

Okinawa was the last battle of the war and one of the hardest. Conducted by Tenth Army on the very doorstep of Japan, it was to involve more CWS equipment than any other Pacific campaign. Each of the four Army divisions of XXIV Corps had 141 portable flame throwers each of the three Marine divisions of III Amphibious Corps had 243, the same number as had been taken to Iwo Jima. The 713 th Tank Battalion, converted to a provisional flame thrower unit for the operation, received a complement of 34 POA main armament flame throwers. ... 

Tank crews developed a fear of the periscope type after the fuel container of one burst and ignited upon being struck by an enemy shell, burning the tank crew to death. This type of auxiliary flame thrower, therefore, was never fully tested in battle. Nor was the bow gun type, with which the III Amphibious Corps was equipped, put to much use, for main armament flame tanks of the 713th Tank Battalion were preferred by Marine as well as Army units. ... 

The Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Units (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)s) have an enhanced internal capability, in terms of NBC threats, to support operations from ships in the littorals. The enhanced capability consists of 19 personnel who are trained in the requisite occupational fields and receive an additional level of expertise that is supervised by CBIRF during workups at the home base. This capability should be exploited for cross-training with the Navy during deployment aboard amphibious ships at sea. 

November 14-16, 2001, in Norfolk, Virginia (plenary session). Site visit to Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia, U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet Command, Headquarters, Marine Forces Atlantic, and U.S. Joint Forces Command to discuss operational readiness issues—fleet, bases, ports, Marine Corps warfighting—and joint doctrine training, tactics, and procedure development. 

Lt Col Whitman S. Bartley, Im Jima Amphibious Epic, Marine Corps Monograph (Washington, 1954), pp. 49, 83-84. 

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