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Kent Weekly (SS/DSV) (DBF), EMCS
to remember
Ghormley, Robert Lee, VADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Last Address Annapolis, MD
Date of Passing Jun 21, 1958
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Was relieved by Admiral Halsey as COMSOPAC in 1942.
In the spring of 1942 Ghormley was appointed Commander of the South Pacific Area (COMSOPAC), arriving in New Zealand on 19 June 1942. Only ten days later Admiral King suggested that the time was right for the first American offensive of the war, an attack into the lower Solomon Islands. Both Ghormley and MacArthur declared that their forces were not ready for this, but on 4 July 1942 reconnaissance aircraft discovered that the Japanese were building an airbase on Guadalcanal. If this base had been completed, then it would have covered the flanks of a Japanese advance towards Port Moresby and even for an attack on Australia. Ghormley and MacArthur had no choice but to go along with King's plans, and prepare to attack Guadalcanal.
Ghormley worked fast, issuing his plans on 16 July, and the attack itself was made on 7 August 1942. The Marines landed unopposed, and quickly captured the Japanese airfield, soon renamed Henderson Field, but after that things began to go wrong. The basic problem was the poor command structure. Although Ghormley was the overall US naval commander in the area, direct command over the fleet at Guadalcanal was held by Admiral "Black Jack" Fletcher, while the amphibious forces were commanded by R.K. Turner. Fletcher and Turner both took part in the actual campaign, while Ghormley remained in New Zealand (eventually moving to Noumea on New Caladonia). A radio blackout during the early days of the campaign meant that Ghormley had no effective control over the course of the fighting, and could do nothing to stop Fletcher from removing his carriers on 9 August. This forced Turner to withdraw his transport ships, and left the marines isolated.
Two months into the campaign, Ghormley had still not visited Guadalcanal, and on 18 October 1942 he was replaced as COMSOPAC by Admiral Halsey.
Description The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. It took place from 7–9 August 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.
In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, successfully landed and captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo among which the Japanese Navy had constructed a naval and seaplane base. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.
At the same time that the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo were taking place, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal, with the objective of capturing an airfield under construction by Japanese forces. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.
