Technique of Invasion

Japan's technique of invasion is precise, painstakingly prepared and efficiently executed. It proves that the U.S. has to over come something more than superiority of numbers in the western Pacific. Last week the War Department released a study of Japanese methods as displayed in the Philippines. Details: For invasion from the sea, the Japanese chose beach areas about five miles long.

Half a mile off the selected landing spot, they placed destroyers. Three miles behind the destroyers, a cruiser or battleship took station. Between the light and heavy war ships were transports. An aircraft carrier nested in their midst.

Anti-aircraft guns curtained the sky just above the ships, and between them and the beach, with concentrated fire. Above this steel ceiling, observation and pursuit planes ranged. Below, from cannily de signed motherships, barges laden with troops and equipment slid into the sea, ready to go as soon as they hit water. These barges varied in type. Some were twin-keeled open boats, carrying no to 120 armed men. The barges had bow flaps which became runways for light artillery and tanks, with V-shaped hulls to deflect enemy fire. One type of barge had an airplane propeller instead of a water-screw, so that it could operate in as little as two feet of water.

Invasion infantry had discarded heavy, encumbering arms for light automatic weapons and grenades. Ahead of the troops, the destroyers dropped a preparatory barrage. The destroyers' guns were fired from their maximum elevation, lobbing shells on the beach. They caused greater destruction than would have been made by shells fired with the normal, flatter trajectory, which might have ricocheted. The Japs, in effect, used their destroyer batteries as land armies use howitzers.

These and other tricks had long been known to the U.S. Army & Navy. But the Japanese applied them with perfect coordination of land, sea and air forces. The War Department seemed to consider the Japanese technique worth pondering.

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