Opening Moves Marines Gear Up For War-Henry I. Shaw, Jr

The Eve of War On 1 September 1939, German armored columns and attack aircraft crossed the Polish border on a broad front and World War II began.

Within days, most of Europe was deeply involved in the conflict as nations took sides for and against Germany and its leader, Adolf Hitler, according to their history, alliances, and self-interest.

Soviet Russia, a natural enemy of Germany's eastward expansion, became a wary partner in Poland's quick defeat and subsequent partition in order to maintain a buffer zone against the German advance.

Inevitably, however, after German successes in the West and the fall of France, Holland, and Belgium in 1940, Hitler attacked Russia in 1941.

In the United States, a week after the fighting in Poland started, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a limited national emergency, a move which, among other measures, authorized the recall to active duty of retired armed forces regulars.

Even before this declaration, in keeping with the temper of the times, the President also stated that the country would remain neutral in the new European war.

During the next two years, however, the United States increasingly shifted from a stance of public neutrality to one of preparation for possible war and quite open support for the beleaguered nations allied against Germany.

America could not concentrate its attention on Europe alone in those eventful years, for another potential enemy dominated the Far East.

In September 1940, Japan became the third member, with Germany and Italy, of the Axis powers.

Japan had pursued its own program of expansion in China and elsewhere in the 1930s, which directly challenged America's interests.

Here, too, in the Pacific arena, the neutral United States was moving toward actions, political and economic, that could lead to a clash with Japan.

In this hectic world atmosphere, America began to build its military strength.

Shortly before Germany attacked Poland, at mid-year 1939, the number of active-duty servicemen stood at 333,473, 188,839 in the Army, 125,202 in the Navy, and 19,432 in the Marine Corps.

A year later, the overall strength was 458,365 and the number of Marines was 28,345.

By early summer of 1941, the Army had 1,801,101 soldiers on active duty, many of them National Guardsmen and reservists, but most of the men enlisted after Congress authorized a peacetime draft.

The Navy, also augmented by the recall of reservists, had 269,023 men on its active rolls.

There were 54,359 Marines serving on 1 July 1941, all the reservists available and a steadily increasing number of volunteers.

Neither the Navy nor the Marine Corps had need for the draft to fill their ranks.

The Marine Corps that grew in strength during 1939 to 1941 was a service-oriented toward amphibious operations and expeditionary duty.

It also had a strong commitment to the Navy beyond its amphibious expeditionary role as it provided Marine detachments to guard naval bases and onboard capital ships throughout the world.

Marine aviation squadrons, all Marine pilots were naval aviators and many were carrier-qualified, reinforced the Navy's air arm.

Two decades of air and ground campaigns in the Caribbean and Central America, the era of the Banana Wars, had ended in 1934 when the last Marines withdrew from Nicaragua, having policed the election of a new government.

With their departure, enough men became available to have meaningful fleet landing exercises, FLEXs, which tested doctrine, troops, and equipment in partnership with the Navy.

And the doctrine tested was both new and important.

Throughout the 1920s, when Major General Commandant John A. Lejeune led the Corps, the doughty World War I commander of, briefly, the renowned 4th Marine Brigade, and then its parent 2nd Infantry Division, had steadfastly emphasized the expeditionary role of the Marines.