The Solomons naval campaign: a paradigm for surface warships in maritime strategy.

This thesis examines the naval campaign in the Solomons during World War II with an emphasis on the relationship between the campaign strategy and the tactics employed. The strategic background is reviewed within the context of the War in early 1942. A central theme developed is that in the Solomons campaign both sides employed cruisers and DD ' s as principal naval forces in place of the fully integrated "battle fleets" envisioned as part of pre-war strategy. The role of war gaming in American preparations for the war is shown to explain in part the failure of American commanders to modify existing doctrine in a timely manner during the campaign. Data from the naval battles fought in the Solomons is compiled in an original way and analyzed to explain the factors which consistently influenced the outcome of the eleven battles. Conclusions reached address the nature of modern campaigns undertaken to widen a conflict ("horizontal escalation" ) and the forces that may be required to pursue such campaigns. The parallels between the use of surface combatant task forces in World War II and their projected employment today are noted and discussed.

Department dc:contributor.department

National Security Affairs (NSA)

Year dc:date.issued

1985

Author dc:creator

• McKearney, T. J.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hughes, Wayne P. Jr.

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/21550

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/21550