“It’s risky,” said Nimitz. “If we put those Marines into the New Hebrides, we’ll have to be able to support them.”
“That’s why this next carrier fight matters so much. In the meantime, I’ve got to win the fight against MacArthur first.”
King took the whole plan to Marshall, and in the sly way he had devised, a mix of fiery intransigence and then laying out his suggestion about MacArthur taking over the whole operation on Fiji. Marshall bit, just as he thought, and the Joint Chiefs agreed to the idea. The only obstacle now was MacArthur, and Marshall’s skill as a negotiator became invaluable. He ordered MacArthur to meet him in Pearl Harbor to see if he could hammer out a final agreement.
“Fiji?” said MacArthur. “We ought to be hitting Noumea with my troops. That will allow us to cover the flank of my move on Papua New Guinea.”
“True, but we aren’t ready to hit Noumea yet—not with two Japanese divisions and air squadrons behind us on Fiji. Besides, there are political considerations here. When the Japanese took Port Moresby and bombed Darwin, the Australians yanked three divisions out of the Middle East and, lo and behold, we lost Java, Burma, and Ceylon. Now they’ve jumped on Fiji, and folks down in New Zealand are afraid the enemy will be on their doorstep tomorrow morning. They want to recall their 2nd New Zealand Division from North Africa, and that has Churchill all in a tither again. Don’t you see? The New Zealanders see Fiji as their northern shield. If that falls, then what’s to stop the Japs from pushing right down through the Kermadec Islands to Auckland, or even Wellington? By god, from there they would control the Tasman Sea and cut off all shipping to Melbourne and Brisbane. We simply can’t allow that, so we need Fiji before we move any further. The Joint Chiefs agree, and they want you to kick the Japanese behinds out of there.”
“Me? The Army only has the 23rd Division in that fight. I thought the Marines were going to do the job there.”
“1st Marine did the heavy lifting,” said Marshall. “They landed in the thick of things last summer and stopped the Japanese push for Suva. Now we have the center and east, but the Japs control the west end of the island. The Joint Chiefs want you to take full authority there and wrap things up.”
“Including the Marines?”
“There’s the rub,” said Marshall. “Admiral King wants Nimitz to retain control of the two Marine Divisions.”
“Dual command? That won’t do at all. It’ll muddle the whole operation up. It’s already bad enough that we have both Army Air Squadrons and Marine Squadrons at Suva.”
“That can’t be helped. When the carriers pulled out we had to rely on those airfields, and threw every good fighter squadron we had in there.”
“Why doesn’t King just land the 2nd Marine Division and finish up there, while I plan for Noumea and New Guinea?”
“Because that would mean we’d have to take the 23rd Division away from you, and probably the 37th as well—unity of command and all…”
“What? Those are Army Divisions. You can’t seriously be contemplating turning them over to Navy control.”
“No, what we want is for you to take over. King wants to pull the 1st Marine Division off, and move in the 25th Infantry from Pago Pago. He wants offensive capability for the Navy to threaten the New Hebrides. So here’s what the Joint Chiefs have decided. You’ll take the 23rd, 37th, and 25th. Then pick anything else you have in the nest at Brisbane, and the Navy has agreed to move it to Suva at the first opportunity. You’ll have all the force you need to stomp on the Japanese and wrap this thing up. At the same time, King wants to take his Marines in to go after Efate and Luganville. That flanks Noumea, and then you move from Fiji to take that place. After that, we roll with your plan to move north, but we simply have to clean house on Fiji first. I’ve taken this to the President as well, and he’s approved the whole thing. So that’s the offer. You can either step in now and lead, or I’ll have to turn it over to Nimitz and the Marines. In that case, we can do nothing for you until that operation concludes, and you and all your forces, will just be sitting there in Brisbane twiddling your thumbs for another two or three months.”
MacArthur frowned. “Yet if we committed those same troops to New Caledonia, Fiji would be bypassed and fall like ripe fruit. They couldn’t supply it any longer.”
“Says who? That depends on the Navy, and there’s no guarantee we can assure naval control of those sea lanes. The President doesn’t want that. He wants certainty. He wants something more direct. With Churchill foaming at the mouth and New Zealand clamoring for help, would you leave such a strong enemy force unfought in your rear like that?”
It was an argument MacArthur would once make when the Navy would propose bypassing the Philippines later in the war, and he was silent for a moment, taking a long drag on his iconic pipe. “I’ll have complete authority there?” he asked again.
“It’ll be your show,” said Marshall. “And your headlines as well.” He smiled.
“Alright,” said MacArthur. “I’ll agree, but on one condition. After I take Fiji, we go for Noumea as I’ve already planned.”
“I think I can sell that,” said Marshall.
So it was decided. Marshall had one the first battle, ending the long simmering rivalry between his Theater Commanders, and now they could finally face the real enemy, Imperial Japan.
Chapter 2
The Japanese Operation FS had been a shock to both sides. As it struggled to stop the enemy, the American Navy had been just good enough to inflict serious harm on the Kido Butai, prompting Yamamoto to withdraw his carriers to refit and replenish at Truk and Rabaul. At the same time, Halsey had been hospitalized and Spruance took over with the last two US flattops, Enterprise and Hornet. His orders were to preserve those ships at all costs, and so he would be restricted to light raiding against Japanese supply convoys, and had to withdraw at the approach of any enemy carrier force.
For their part, the Japanese wanted no further carrier action in late 1942, concentrating on both their northern front in the Sea of Okhotsk, and then in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean for their highly successful operation to seize Ceylon and drive the British fleet back to Madagascar. In the Fiji Group, they would send one carrier division to watch over supply runs to Nandi Bay, but did not willfully seek out their enemy. All eyes were now on the land battle joined on the big island of Viti Levu, but it did not go as the Japanese had planned and hoped.
For the Army, the shock of seeing the Sakaguchi Detachment halted as it advanced on Suva from the north, then seeing it pushed back to Tavua by the American Marines, was yet another unexpected development. This was the Army that had overcome 100,000 British and Commonwealth troops in Malaya. Until that last stubborn defense put up by Montgomery on Singapore Island, it had been an unbeatable force in every engagement. Now it found itself retreating from American Marines, the burn of shame hot on the back of Sakaguchi’s neck. This had not happened in the Philippines, or anywhere else. That it happened there on far flung Fiji was most alarming.
The Army’s reaction was swift and predictable. Yamamoto first thought that they would claim the objective was too distant to adequately support the troops, and then blame the defeat on the Navy, but that was not what happened. Their pride and honor at stake, they doubled down, calling on some of the very same divisions that had delivered those stunning early victories. A single regiment had not been enough they realized. Now, with at least two American Divisions landed in the Fiji Group, they would need a much stronger force to prevail. Sakaguchi was ordered to dig in a little east of Tavua in the north and await reinforcements.