S8 Ep257: AMPHIBIOUS LESSONS AND INTERNAL RIVALRIES Colleague Craig Symonds. The Central Pacific drive began with the bloody assault on Tarawa, revealing the difficulties of amphibious warfare against coral reefs and the temper of Marine General Holland "Howlin' Ma

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🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

AMPHIBIOUS LESSONS AND INTERNAL RIVALRIES Colleague Craig Symonds. The Central Pacific drive began with the bloody assault on Tarawa, revealing the difficulties of amphibious warfare against coral reefs and the temper of Marine General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith. Nimitz also managed friction with his deputy, John Towers, an aviator who believed only pilots should command carriers. Applying "calculated risk," Nimitz overruled subordinates to strike directly at Kwajalein in the Marshalls, a decision that proved successful. He also gave Marc Mitscher a second chance, allowing him to eventually become a legendary carrier commander despite Spruance'slingering reservations. NUMBER 5
1945 OKINAWA

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World.
0:08.4	Here's John Batchelor.
0:10.9	Craig Simon's new book is Nimitz at War, command leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay.
0:17.4	He is a meritorist professor of history from the U.S. Naval Academy, and we're speaking of
0:22.7	Chester Nimitz at war in the Pacific. It is now the point where the Central Pacific campaign,
0:31.9	starting in the Gilbert Islands, driving towards the Japanese islands, is underway with the landing at Tarawa,
0:40.0	a small island, a series of atolls.
0:43.0	And this is where the Marines have to practice their amphibious landing that will get better
0:48.9	and stronger throughout the war.
0:50.9	In fact, amphibious landings in general are now being invented by the Marines and the
0:55.2	army, and they require specialized ships that don't exist at this point. You all think of the landing
1:01.8	craft from D-Day, the drop of the front, and the men piling out. Well, that didn't exist as they
1:07.9	land at Tarawa. This is November of 1943. The professor's book concentrates on
1:13.5	relationships, however. So we begin with Chester Nimitz's relationship with the U.S. Marine Corps.
1:19.5	He worked very well through Halsey with Vandergrift at Guadalcanal. But now we introduce a man
1:24.9	named Holland Smith. What is that relationship, Professor? Thank you.
1:29.6	Well, Holland Smith was the man who was in charge of Marine Corps training. And in the previous
1:34.8	decade, the Marines had made amphibious operations their particular area of expertise.
1:41.1	This derived in part from the fact that in World War I, the Marines had fought in France as if they were a regular Army division, and they realized that in order to maintain their unique character and personality, they needed to develop a particular expertise and aware that Japan was a likely foe, they developed throughout the 19, late 20s and the 30s,
2:02.6	this expertise in amphibious operations.
2:05.6	We now associate the Marines with amphibious operations from the start, but that really is a relatively new thing here.
2:12.8	And the training for this was supervised by Holland Smith. Holland Smith was not a patient man. His nickname.
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