SO JUST WHAT IS A NAVAL BEACH BATTALION?

 

        Just really what is a BEACH BATTALION?  All of us have been asked this question.  The best answer is that one must picture TIMES SQUARE without traffic cops and signal lights.  Then remove the pedestrian lanes and now let the traffic flow.  The result would no doubt be calamitous in just a few minutes.

        Now imagine the activity on an invasion beachhead, where thousands and thousands of men and tons upon tons of equipment pour ashore.  If the Navy had no one to direct the flow of man and materiels, the invasion might fail for lack of proper coordination.  To prevent a tie-up in communications and transportation on an invasion Beachhead, the Navy uses the Beach Battalions.

        The Beach Battalion’s job is to keep Uncle Sam’s many “Ship to Shore” offensives running smoothly.  This is done by dividing the nine platoons (45 to 52 men each) into six sections.  A Beach Battalion had approximately 450 Officers and Men.  Of those, each of the nine platoons had a Medical Officer assigned to it.  The six sections were: COMMAND, MEDICAL, HYDROGRAPHIC, COMMUNICATIONS, DEMOLITION, and BOAT REPAIR.

        In an invasion, four of these are under the Command Section, making five sections.  They pursue their important specialties before and during the landings.  The unarmed Corpsmen of the Medical Section tend the wounded and their courage has elicited high praise from all branches of the Military Services.  Also, the Medical Section treated the wounded of both sides during an invasion and also had some of the burden to aid the wounded citizens of the towns and villages near the shoreline of battle, so they had their hands really full during any invasion.

        The Communications Section takes the place of the Army Shore Party Communication Section because the Army is not trained in “Ship to Shore” communications.  Then we, the Navy, relay the communication to the Army ashore, or to those on the beachhead, and they relay it in.

        The Command Section was responsible for the direction of all other sections.

        The Hydrographic Section was responsible for finding channels that the small boats could approach and unload either troops or supplies on the beach.  They also had to serve as traffic cops on the beach to keep traffic flowing smoothly across the beachhead.

        The Demolition Section was responsible for blowing up any obstruction that would hinder the landing of boats on the beach.

        The Boat Repair Section was responsible for repairing small boats which were disabled on the beach so they could return to the large troop ships to bring in more troops and supplies.

        The Amphibious Forces first designed shoulder patch is reputed to have been officially approved, but no written records concerning this insignia could be located.  It is believed that the patch was first worn by members assigned to the Navy Amphibious Forces and was later appropriated for wear by personnel at the Amphibious Force Training Center at Little Creek, Virginia.  The patch depicts an alligator disgorging tanks on a beach which is suggestive of the amphibious role in combat landings.

        The Amphibious Forces shoulder insignia was approved for wear by the Secretary of the Navy in BUPERS CIRC.LTR 173-44 on June 15th, 1944 by enlisted men “regularly assigned to and serving with Amphibious Forces”.  The authorization to wear the insignia “terminated with the individual’s detachment from the Amphibious Forces”.  It has already been noted under the Army Amphibious Forces how an agreement was reached between the Army and the Navy concerning the roles of the two services in amphibious operations.  As a result of this agreement, the Navy was given the task of developing the various types of landing craft and preparing units for ship to shore operations, while the Army was limited to smaller craft of 50 (LCM) and 36 (LCVP) feet.

        In October of 1942, the Amphibious Forces Atlantic Fleet Headquarters was constituted at Norfolk, Virginia and the Navy began to give added emphasis to amphibious operations and training.  While a large number of varied craft were adopted for amphibious warfare, they fell into three major categories: large ocean-going vessels such as the 327 foot Landing Ship Tank (LST), and over 1150 of these were made during the war.  Included in this category were the Landing Ship Dock (LSD), Landing Ship Vehicle (LSV), Landing Ship Medium (LSM), Landing Craft Infantry (LCI), and Landing Craft Tank (LCT). 
        The second category included craft carried to the theaters of operations aboard larger vessels such as the Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM), and the Landing Craft Vehicles Personnel (LCVP).          The final category consisted of wheeled and tracked vehicles including the Amphibious Tractor (LVT) and Amphibious Trucks (DUKW).  By the end of the war, nearly 70,000 landing craft and ships of all types had been procured by the Navy, and these saw service in every part of the world where American troops made assault landings.  In addition to instructing landing craft personnel, the Atlantic and Pacific Bases of the Amphibious Training Command also trained scouts and raiders, combat demolition units, beach jumpers, joint assault signal companies, and beach battalions.   Medical personnel landed with the assault units in support of amphibious warfare and often established aid stations under enemy fire.  Medical care provided by the Navy during the course of the war became so effective that 98 out of every 100 Navy and Marine Corps personnel who were wounded in battle were saved. 
        The bravery of the Navy Amphibious Forces personnel aboard the landing craft and on the beaches enabled the Allies to assault the enemy in Europe and to cross the far reaches of the Pacific and bring the war to the Japanese mainland.

        The design of the Amphibious Forces shoulder patch was taken from the British Combined Operations (Commando) insignia and reflects the fact that an amphibious operation is an extremely complex undertaking which involves the use of air (the eagle), sea (the anchor), and land (the sub-machine gun) forces.  The shoulder patch worn by the Navy Amphibious Forces is the same as that of the Army except that it is gold on a scarlet background, the scarlet to be the same color as the scarlet chevrons of a rating badge.  

 

 

 

 

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