They did so alongside the 'Brave Rifles' of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, the predecessors of the modern 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment which we explored in
4
Airpower zealots believed that daylight precision bombing, using the top-secret Norden bombsight, would quickly cripple the German war effort. It turned out that the accuracy of bombing had been overestimated by several orders of magnitude, and most of the bombs dropped on Germany were wasted.
5
Navy submarines sank far more enemy shipping in WWII than the cherished and vastly expensive battleships, despite the handicap of scandalously unreliable torpedoes during the first year of the war.
6
Twelve of these awards were posthumous. Several Navy medics serving with Marine units on Iwo Jima were also awarded the Medal.
7
Note, 'Blue water' is generally understood to mean naval operations on. above, or under the ocean, beyond the continental shelf, which is nominally defined as the 200-fathom (1200-foot/600-meter) depth-contour line. 'Blue water' may also be viewed as ocean areas beyond the direct influence of enemy land-based airpower.
8
This was codified in law so that no future President or Secretary of Defense could disband the Corps or reduce it to a token force merely through an executive order or administrative reorganization. President Harry S Truman was not fond of the Marine Corps. The Congress, during those years, was not fond of President Truman.
9
For a description of the Global Positioning System, see Navigation, starting on page 91.
