WWII Amphibious Forces training book

[Bob Hudson]

Found the most incredible book today:

 

PhibsTraPac

Story of the Amphibious Trainee

 

Training Command Amphibious Forces--Pacific Fleet

 

The pages aren't numbered but it appears to be perhaps 100-150 pages and it's about the height and width of Life Magazine.

 

It was produced in 1944 or 45, before the war ended, and the US Navy classifies it as one of the "Cruise Books of the United States Navy in World War II." I did a google search and this seems to be a pretty rare book with not much information including an accurate publishing date, but you can tell from the text that the war was still on when it was published.

 

A similar, but apparently thinner, book was produced for the "Amphibious Training Command, Atlantic Fleet."

 

Tonight I scanned the cover, the introduction by Admiral Fort and one of the pages showing various types of ships and boats used by Amphibious Forces.

 

It has great photos of all aspects of the training, everything from basic seamanship and boat handling to small arms training, mechanics, etc. I even learned that during training the sailors who would handle landing craft actually put on full packs and weapons and made a beach landing just as soldiers and Marines would do in combat. The book has some really interesting details about what actually goes on during the whole landing process including photos and info about the soldiers and Marines training for amphibious operations.

 

 

 

The book starts with a history of Amphibious Forces including the ancient LSH - Landing Ship Horse:

 

 

This is an excerpt from a two-page spread showing a dozen landing ships, boats and other craft (such as DUKW and LVT's).

 

[Bob Hudson]

The cover of this book has that great color image of the coxswain with the OD deckjacket and life vest. The inside photos are black and white but a couple do show some other Navy clothing items in use including the rubberized pullover rain parka being worn by this officer and the rubberized rain coveralls being worn by crews working in and near the surf to unload boats. I don't often see this kind of foul weather gear in photos and I've assumed that's because when it was worn aboard ship, the weather was probably too foul for photographers to want to wander on deck and take pictures.

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

 

[Bob Hudson]

Besides the photos of Navy trainees, there are several pages of photos or Army and Marine troops practicing all stages of the landing process beginning with learning on a net attached to a simulated ship's hull:

 

 

These Marines are practicing on a real ship. Notice the machete strapped to the pack:

 

[Bob Hudson]

There are a few pages with many photos showing corpsman training for amphibious operations. As with many sections of the book, there are seldom seen insights into details of the amphibious operations, such as this photo showing how an injured soldier is lifted from a landing craft onto a ship:

 

 

Having met a guy who was a corpsman ferrying wounded back for the beach on Iwo Jima (and was himself wounded in the process) it was interesting to see the corpsman getting their specialized training for beach operations.

[Bob Hudson]

We always see the photos and movies of landing craft hitting the beaches, dropping the ramps and the troops rushing ashore. Here we get an idea of how the follow up waves were often handled when a lot of beachmasters were needed to unload and often to stready the craft carrying cargo and vehicles. The books has numerous photos showing construction of pontoons bridges when LST can't get close enough to the beach, of crews working to save landing craft that has turned side ways because of the waves, and ones such as this photo showing lines being used to steady a craft as a bulldozer tugs at a pallet of cargo:

 

 

Soldiers and Marines also got training in cargo handling:

 

 

That photo was taken at Morro Bay on the central California coast. That would have been north of Port Hueneme (now home to a SeaBees base), one of the three California bases used for Pacific Fleet amphibious training during WWII. The other two were at Oceanside (on what is now part of Camp Pendleton) and the other was at Coronado at what is now Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, the headquarters and training site for Navy SEALS. Coronado was also the HQ for the WWII amphibious training for the Pacific Fleet.

 

Amphibious Training Base, Morro Bay was mostly on leased land including what is now Morro Bay State Park. The Navy also operated patrol vessels from the protected harbor at Morro Bay.

[Bob Hudson]

Elsewhere on the forum is a brief review of the book "US World War II Amphibious Tactics: Mediterranean & European Theaters." See that at http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=7116 and at http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=7113 is a report on the book "U.S. Naval Amphibious Forces" by Jeff Warner.

[Bob Hudson]

--

[capa]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing this...

Fielding

Found the most incredible book today:

 

PhibsTraPac

Story of the Amphibious Trainee

 

Training Command Amphibious Forces--Pacific Fleet

 

The pages aren't numbered but it appears to be perhaps 100-150 pages and it's about the height and width of Life Magazine.

 

It was produced in 1944 or 45, before the war ended, and the US Navy classifies it as one of the "Cruise Books of the United States Navy in World War II." I did a google search and this seems to be a pretty rare book with not much information including an accurate publishing date, but you can tell from the text that the war was still on when it was published.

 

A similar, but apparently thinner, book was produced for the "Amphibious Training Command, Atlantic Fleet."

 

Tonight I scanned the cover, the introduction by Admiral Fort and one of the pages showing various types of ships and boats used by Amphibious Forces.

 

It has great photos of all aspects of the training, everything from basic seamanship and boat handling to small arms training, mechanics, etc. I even learned that during training the sailors who would handle landing craft actually put on full packs and weapons and made a beach landing just as soldiers and Marines would do in combat. The book has some really interesting details about what actually goes on during the whole landing process including photos and info about the soldiers and Marines training for amphibious operations.

 

 

 

The book starts with a history of Amphibious Forces including the ancient LSH - Landing Ship Horse:

 

 

This is an excerpt from a two-page spread showing a dozen landing ships, boats and other craft (such as DUKW and LVT's).

 

[Bob Hudson]

I've been rescanning this book to list it for sale so I took the opportunity to do some closeups of some of what was worn by the Amphibious Forces:

 

 

 

This looks like a denim coat:

 

[Bob Hudson]

 

This is seabag inspection at one of the Amphibious Forces training sites in California: