Yesterday Tenacious Trilobite’s video of him shooting his Lee Navy came on my feed.
It got me to googling and I found this. The Standard Organization Book
for 2100-Ton Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, 1943.
It has some pretty interesting stuff, including a novelty: Navy rifle squads.
The Marines get the best PR and they are undoubtedly the more specialized amphibious force.
But until the 1970s, using the crew of a ship as infantrymen was a valued skillset
in the US Navy. The so-called Bluejackets had conducted large-scale amphibious assaults at
brigade strength in the early 20th century, and landing party manuals from after World War II
still had provision for sailor battalions pulled from various ships in a formation.
Their missionsets by the end were generally limited due to a lack of organic firepower,
poor sustainment, and their ad hoc nature. But in the interest of time,
I’ve linked some sources in the description for your reading.
The example from World War II applies to Fletcher-class destroyers.
Its Landing Force was essentially a very small platoon, led by the ship’s First Lieutenant.
He was also the ship’s Damage Control Officer and head of the 1st Division.
The force had two rifle squads. One formed with men from the 1st and 2nd Divisions,
which were the deck and hull divisions, and the other from the Engineering Division.
Number 1 Squad consisted of a Squad Leader, a Second-in-Command, 3 Scouts,
2 Automatic Riflemen, and 3 Riflemen. The Squad Leader was a Petty Officer,
an NCO, in this case with the rate of Boatswain’s Mate 2nd class. His
2IC was a non-rated Seaman 1st Class, and the remainder were any grade of Seamen.
Most in the squad were armed with Rifles. Most likely M1903 Springfields. The Automatic Riflemen
meanwhile were armed with Thompsons submachine guns. Note that these landing parties were
different from the Seabee construction battalions and naval beach battalions,
which were intended to be landed as a rule and had M1 Garands and Carbines in their TO&E.
The 2nd Squad was identical, but led by a Gunner’s Mate 1st Class from the Ordnance Division and
composed of Firemen from the Engineering Division.
The Fletcher-class itself had two lifeboats that could be used for landing forces. Each
would have an additional Chief Petty Officer or Petty Officer first class acting as Boat Officer.
Fast forward to 1950-1960, and Navy Landing Parties looked much more like their Marine
cousins. Squads were led by Carbine-armed Petty Officers Third Class and consisted
of 3 fire teams of 4 men each. Each team was led by a Seaman 1st Class,
the highest of the non-rates, while the rest were Seamen 1st or 2nd class. Like a Marine Squad,
most were armed with M1 Garands, while an Automatic Rifleman manned an M1918A2 BAR.
At this time, destroyers, destroyer leaders and destroyer escorts were intended to provide up
to one rifle squad. Amphibious assault ships a rifle platoon. And battleships,
carriers and cruisers, a rifle company. Division flagships were
intended to provide an additional battalion headquarters company to lead their division’s
companies. A battleship division generally had four battleships, which by itself could provide
a full battalion. And destroyer squadrons would provide two platoon and one company headquarters.
With eight ships in a squadron of the time, that force could notionally land a company.
As stated before, a Petty Officer Third class would lead squads. Lieutenants junior grade
or ensigns would lead platoons. Lieutenants commanded companies, while a Company Chief
Petty Officer acted as a First Sergeant. Battalions were led by commanders. And
regiments by Captains. Although the manuals state regiments were envisaged only for parade purposes.
The heaviest weapon in a battalion was the M1919A4 .30 caliber machine gun,
housed in a company machine gun platoon. Completely lacking in artillery, mortars,
and tanks, fire support was limited to naval gunfire support and aviation.
This video was more casual since I’m actually working on a longer video on US Army drones and
wanted to keep it brief. If you want to learn more about some of the Navy ranks and rates mentioned,
check out our earlier video on that topic. We’ll see you over there.