ORGANIZATION OF THE COASTAL FRONTIERS

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forces employed in coastal frontier defense. The specific purpose of coastal frontier defense was therein stated to include the protection of shipping in coastal waters, the protection of military, commercial and industrial installations or facilities, and the prevention of invasion of United States territories from overseas. In this early statement, coordinated Army-Navy defenses for the United States were formulated in broad outlines within four coastal frontiers: North Atlantic, Southern, Great Lakes and Pacific. Within each coastal frontier, specified Army commands were directed to formulate the integration of war plans with specified Navy commands. For purposes of planning and defense, each coastal frontier was divided into sectors and subsectors. For example, the North Atlantic Coastal Frontier originally included the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Naval Districts, with coastal boundaries extending from the International Boundary to the southern extreme of Hatteras Inlet. This area was divided into three sectors: New England sector, New York sector, Delaware Chesapeake sector. These sectors were further subdivided into the Portland sub-sector, Boston sub-sector, Newport sub-sector, Long Island sub-sector, New Jersey sub-sector, Delaware sub-sector and the Chesapeake sub-sector.

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command-officers. For the Army, it was directed that the district commander of the First Coast Artillery would prepare joint plans for the New England sector with the Commandant, First Naval District --- and analogous joint plan relationships throughout the other sectors were outlined. Further definitions were included to furnish definite understanding as to the respective functions of the two Services in coordinating operations for national defense.

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functioned as frontier commanders in a somewhat tentative capacity. For example, Rear Admiral C. H. Woodward continued his function as Commandant, Third Naval District, while he directed certain members of his district staff to plan the organization of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier; but there was no order directing that Admiral Woodward be given the additional command.

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not only reiterated the boundaries of the coastal frontiers as laid down in FTP-155, but also included in the Appendix the designation of geographical limits for the territorial frontiers. As a further amplification of boundaries, this Change included a statement that the offshore waters would be considered as under the cognizance of the commandants of the Naval Districts and Naval Stations concerned; that these waters extended seaward so far as was necessary to include the coastwise sea lanes and the focal points of shipping routes. This was an elaboration of that paragraph in FTP-155 which had defines a coastal zone as the whole area of navigable waters adjacent to the seacoast and extending seaward to cover coastwise sea lanes.

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the protection and control of merchant shipping from Atlantic ports to the British Isles and the control and protection of military supplies and troops soon to be transported to bases in Newfoundland, Iceland, Greenland, and Ireland. It was necessary to place in command of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier an officer qualified to understand the problems of escort, convoy, anti-submarine defense, logistics and transportation, together with multifarious problems of rapid organization. On January 14, 1941, orders were issued to transfer Rear Admiral Andrews from his command as Commander, Scouting Force, United States Fleet to a new command as Commandant, Third Naval District. These orders were modified under date of March 1, 1941, giving Admiral Andrews additional duties as Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier. When he assumed this dual command on March 10, 1941, relieving Rear Admiral C. H. Woodward, Admiral Andrews was the first actual Commandant, Third Naval District to serve under orders as the official Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier.

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Operations Officer, Shipping Control Officer, Air Officer, First Army Liaison Officer, Intelligence Officer and Communication Officer. It also provided for the Command Relations and the plans for coordination with the Army Commander, Nevertheless, at this time, no officers were immediately available to fill these commands.

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but added in the same dispatch, "For the present, Naval Coastal Frontier Forces, as prescribed in General Order No. 143, will not be formed."

        Another limited aspect of task force organization may be considered briefly here because it has to do with a more general matter of command relations which must be considered in regard to the organization of the coastal frontiers. General Order No. 143, issued on February 3, 1941, stated that Commandants of Naval Districts and Commanders of Naval Coastal Frontiers have administrative responsibility direct to the Navy Department for local and coastal forces; but Commanders of Naval Coastal Frontiers have task responsibility to the Chief of Naval Operations for Naval Coastal Frontier Forces. This matter of dual command was further elaborated in Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 5 (WPL-46), when it was issued on May 26, 1941. Therein the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier Forces, was assigned a dual status: as a Commander of the Naval Coastal Frontier Forces operating under the orders of the Chief of Naval Operations; as an officer of the U. S. Atlantic Fleet, in command of task groups of that fleet, when and as directed by the Commander in Chief thereof. Thus, it may be seen that the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, was faced with the somewhat delicate problem of preparing operation plans which should constantly differentiate between his administrative responsibility to the Navy Department, his command responsibility to the Chief of Naval Operations, and his command responsibility to the Commander in Chief, U. S. Atlantic Fleet.

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of North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier Plan O-4, Rainbow No. 5 (NA-NCF-46), promulgated on July 3, 1941. Certain definitions contained in the plan were of particular importance. The boundaries of the coastal frontier remained unchanged, although they were soon to undergo specific modifications. Coastal Force Areas, Air Patrol Areas, Focal Areas, were carefully and thoroughly defined. NA-NCF-46 was submitted to the Chief of Naval Operations, who accepted the plan then gave it painstaking analysis because it was the first of its kind, and therefore provided a model for the formulations of similar plans. In transmitting the results of his analysis to the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, on September 22, 1941, the Chief of Naval Operations wrote.

        "This review, the first made of a Plan O-4, has been of high interest and value to the Office of Naval Operations. The plan, in general, indicates excellent appreciation and effective development of the intentions of the Chief of Naval Operations with respect to the new Naval Coastal Frontier Commands. The following comments, while in considerable detail, are furnished solely with a view to assisting toward possible improvements in the course of future changes to this plan......"

        One problem elaborated in the analysis made by the Chief of Naval Operations was the relationship between Commanders of Coastal Frontiers and Commandants of Naval Districts. Until this time, there had been no clear statement as to this command relationship. The spirit of early directives concerning the establishment of coastal frontier defense had indicated that the primary function of commands within a coastal frontier would be the operation of Army and Navy forces to provide security for

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coastal areas; that the naval districts, originally established to decentralize various Navy Department functions, would continue to carry out such assigned capacities independent of naval coastal frontier commands. Commandants of Naval Districts would be responsible to Commanders of Naval Coastal Frontiers, however, to provide logistic support, to provide units of naval local defense forces, to fulfill assigned district functions as group commanders within naval coastal frontier forces. In his analysis of NA-NCF O-4, the Chief of Naval OPerations clarified this particular problem:

        " Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, should not . . . assume full and exclusive jurisdiction over the Services in the Districts. They receive their tasks through the District Commandants direct from the Chief of Naval Operations, each Commandant in these capacities appearing in the task organizations of the respective Services Operating Plans directly under the Chief of Naval Operations. While WPL-46, paragraph 3133, assigns a limited, coordinating jurisdiction over the District Commandants with respect to the Services, it is not intended to impose upon him responsibility for the execution of Service tasks in the districts which embrace many duties well outside the assigned tasks of an Operating Force Commander such as Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier. His command comprises Naval Coastal Force and Naval Local Defense Forces only. Such coordination as he exercises under the above reference should be restricted to that necessary to assigned North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier tasks and with due regard for the broader Service tasks assigned direct to Districts . . ."

        Another problem raised by Plan O-4 had been caused by the establishment of Naval Operating Bases in Newfoundland and Bermuda. In the original plans,

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the Newfoundland base had been conceived as a land base under the Commandant First Naval District, the Bermuda base under the Commandant, Fifth Naval District. Therefore it might seem that these two bases should be considered as sectors within the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier. This anomaly was clarified in the late fall of 1941, when these Naval Operating Bases were assigned as task groups of the United States Atlantic Fleet, for both task and administration purposes, except for the administration of those matters concerning naval reservations and local naval activities, which continued to be administered through the Commandant of the First and Fifth Naval Districts, respectively. Thus, after considerable discussion between the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, and various Army and Navy commands, it was determined that neither of these bases became the direct responsibility of the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier.

        During these weeks and months of organization, certain boundary problems were discussed and settled. For administrative and defense purposes, the boundary of the Fifth Naval District (and thus of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier) was extended to intersect the coastline at the southern extreme of Onslow County, below Cape Lookout, thus transferring several counties from the Sixth Naval District. This change, made effective on September 1, 1941, resulted in subsequent modifications to FTP-155 and WPL-46.

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FRONTIER TASK FORCES AND COMMAND RELATIONS

        The character and function of frontier task forces were described broadly in Joint Action of the Army and the Navy, 1935, which contained the enumeration of tasks which might serve as guides in the planning and execution of operations in which Army and Navy forces would participate. In the description of coastal frontier defense, the general function of the Navy was defined as the conduct of naval operations to gain and maintain command of vital sea areas and to protect the sea lanes vital to the United States. In carrying out these functions, the Navy would provide defense by means of the following: offshore patrol and scouting; inshore patrols to protect mine fields, underwater obstructions, and defensive coastal areas; patrol and escort to protect and regulate shipping; installation and maintenance of contact mines, nets, booms and underwater listening posts; communication, intelligence and information systems.

The primary task organization proposed for the joint action of the Army and the Navy in coastal frontier defense was outlined under two categories: the naval local defense forces and the naval coastal force. The former would consist of naval units, including Coast Guard and Lighthouse Service, Afloat and ashore, attached to a naval district; the later would consist of naval units operating within the coastal zone to meet those situations in which the former forces were inadequate to carry out frontier defense. Nevertheless, the naval local defense forces would include both inshore patrol and offshore patrol groups; the first group operating within a defensive coastal area and controlling shipping within

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a defensive sea area or maritime control area; the second group operating and patrolling the coastal zone outside of those areas. An escort force might consist of vessels from a naval coastal force or a naval local defense force, but the latter would be responsible for those escort groups protecting convoys within the inshore waters of naval districts. Furthermore these two coastal defense forces would have as an added purpose the carrying out of numerous functions which might assure the strategic freedom of action for the Fleet, by removing any anxiety of the Fleet in regard to the security of its bases.

        The first general directive as to the actual formation of task forces under naval coastal frontiers was contained in Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 1 (WPL-42), promulgated in July 1940. To carry out the joint tasks which had been assigned within Joint Action of the Army and the Navy, 1935, and more specifically in a theoretical concept of possible war conditions as presented in the Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 1, the first Navy directives under this plan indicated the structure of task organization under three main categories: Operating Forces, the Services, and the Shore Establishments. Of these three, the most important insofar as naval coastal frontiers were concerned came under the Operating Forces, thus briefly summarized in Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 1:

1.	The United States Fleet, including U. S. Army Forces made available for employment with the U. S. Fleet, under the command of the Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet;
2.	The United States Asiatic Fleet, under command of the

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	Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet;
3.	The Naval Coastal Frontier Forces, under the command of the Commanders, Naval Coastal Frontiers, consisting of;
	(a) The Naval Coastal Forces,
	(b) The Naval Local Defense Forces.

        Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 1 further stipulated that the immediate command of naval local defense forces would be delegated to commanders of naval districts, while the immediate command of the naval coastal forces would remain with the commanders of the naval coastal frontiers. Authority was also given a commander of a naval coastal frontier to coordinate the activities of the Services (Transportation, Communication, Intelligence) controlled by the naval districts within his command, for purposes relating to the defense of a specific naval coastal frontier; but with due consideration for the requirements of those tasks assigned to the services by the Chief of Naval Operations. According to Rainbow No. 1, the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier should plan its defense to comply with "Category B", indicating that this frontier should be considered as possibly subject to minor attacks.

        "Change One" of WPL-42 touched briefly on the manner in which vessels would be assigned. Naval coastal forces would comprise the naval forces assigned for the general defense of coastal frontiers; naval local defense forces would comprise naval forces assigned to the naval districts. In the light of naval tasks and joint tasks assigned, commanders of specified naval coastal frontiers were requested to prepare "Frontier Operating Plans" which would contain, in annex form, the plans for execution of the tasks relating to such additional matters as the routing of merchant shipping.

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        On February 3, 1941, the appearance of General Order No. 143 modified the earlier task organization by enumerating the categories of United States Naval Forces thus:

1.	The United States Fleet, comprising:
	(a) The United States Atlantic Fleet,
	(b) The United States Pacific Fleet,
	(c) The United States Asiatic Fleet
2.	The Naval Coastal Frontier Forces,
3.	Special Task Forces,
4.	Special Duty Ships,
5.	Naval Transportation Service,
6.	Naval District Craft.

        General Order No. 143 contained further analysis of this organization. It was therein stated that naval coastal frontier forces are subdivided into: (a) naval coastal forces, and (b) naval local defense forces. Insofar as commend relations were concerned, General Order No. 143 reiterated that commanders of naval coastal frontiers have task responsibility to the Chief of Naval Operations for naval coastal frontier forces; but that commandants of naval districts and commanders of naval coastal frontiers have administrative responsibility direct to the Navy Department for naval local defense forces and naval coastal frontier forces, respectively. The primary importance of this General Order is that it established the task force relationship between the forces of naval coastal frontiers and the larger naval forces of the United States Fleet. Nevertheless, General Order No. 143 did not establish the forces of the naval coastal frontiers, but merely described the general structure they would follow, when formed.

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formed within separate naval districts, thus:

	Naval Local Defense Force,	First Naval District
		Rear Admiral W. T. Tarrant
	Naval Local Defense Force,	Third Naval District
	Naval Local Defense Force,	Fourth Naval District
		Rear Admiral A. E. Watson
	Naval Local Defense Force,	Fifth Naval District
		Rear Admiral J. K. Taussig

        When Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 5 (WPL-46) was promulgated, on May 26, 1941, it contained a directive to the effect that the highest priority should be assigned to the preparation of the subordinate plans thus required. Consequently, immediate attention was given to this plan by the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier. Insofar as command relations were concerned, WPL-46 made one additional stipulation as to the dual status of task force command: a commander of a naval coastal frontier force would operate under the orders of the Chief of Naval OPerations; but he might also be called on to operate as an officer of the United States Atlantic Fleet, under the orders of the Commander in Chief, United States Atlantic Fleet, in command of task groups of that fleet, whenever so directed. It was further stated that the Commander in Chief, United States Atlantic Fleet, might require that the commanders of naval coastal frontiers should place under his command, for limited purposes, task groups of their naval coastal frontier forces; but that such task groups would not be required to leave the limits of their respective coastal zones, except in emergency. Precedent for a similar command relationship had earlier been made in General Order No. 109. At this time, also, the Naval Operating Base at Bermuda was assigned as a unit of the United States

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Atlantic Fleet, both for administrative and task purposes.

        In "Appendix II" to Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 5, a tentative estimate was given as to the composition of forces in the naval coastal frontiers. Insofar as naval coastal forces were concerned, surface craft or aircraft might be made available from three main sources: those assigned by the Chief of Naval Operations; those assigned temporarily by the Commander in Chief, United States Atlantic Fleet; and those assigned to a naval coastal force from naval local defense forces, by order of a commander of a naval coastal frontier.

        Insofar as the composition of naval local defense forces were concerned, the various assignments of surface craft and aircraft might be made from units already assigned or subsequently assigned by the Chief of Naval Operations to naval districts, outlying naval stations, or to activities excluded from naval districts. These might include units from special task forces or special duty ships. Such re-assignments would be made by commandants of the naval districts which had such units already under their command. They would include:

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fall on specifically assigned task forces and groups of the United States Atlantic Fleet, which would have been available for these plans, as of July 1, 1941, 6 battleships, 5 cruisers, 54 destroyers, 4 mine sweepers and 54 patrol planes. Supporting these, the still unformed Naval Coastal Force of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier was estimated, also as of July 1, 1941, thus: 5 Eagle boats, 3 gunboats, 4 coastal patrol boats, 18 patrol planes, 6 blimps. Supporting these, in the proposed assignments to naval local defense forces, as outlined in WPL-46 on May 26, 1941, were the proposed assignments to naval local defense forces. These included a proposed reassignment of naval district craft, together with other small craft which would later be purchased and converted by separate naval districts; also, such Coast Guard ships as might be left over after other assignments had been made. Thus, although WPL-46 indicated a proposed combined total of more than 100 surface craft for local defense forces in the naval districts of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, these were available largely "on paper", and very few of them existed in fit condition for actual combat at that time, or in the eight months remaining before the declaration of war.

        On July 1, 1941, the Chief of Naval Operations formally established the naval coastal Frontiers, but stated that the forces of these frontiers would not yet be formed. It was directed that vessels assigned to naval districts and naval stations would continue in their assignments; that until further orders, new assignments of vessels would be made to naval districts and naval stations, rather than to naval coastal frontier forces, naval coastal forces or naval local defense forces.

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In accordance with these various directives, the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier promulgated Plan O-4, Rainbow No. 5 (NA-NCF-46) on July 3, 1941. Insofar as task forces were concerned, the tentative plans outlined in NA-NCF-46 were intended to furnish sufficient information to permit commandants of naval districts to proceed with the preparation of operating plans which would be in accord with Rainbow No. 5. In assigning operating areas for naval local defense forces, this plan stated that these areas would be those given in Navy Regulations, 1920; that these areas should include all inland and territorial waters, defensive costal areas and coastal waters, extended to seaward to include the coastal sea lanes within their boundaries.

        The somewhat hypothetical nature of task force organization was not immediately changed by the official formation of the naval coastal frontier forces as ordered by the Chief of Naval OPerations, on September 9, 1941. The letter stated that for the present the naval coastal frontier forces would be composed only of the naval local defense forces; that these would be made up of units assigned thereto by the respective commandants from units already made available to them in Assignment of Units to Naval Districts, issued July 1, 1941. Perhaps the most important result of this order was that the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier was thus officially made a task force commander, whose orders would be carried out through commandants, serving as task group commanders.

        To describe the general manner of coordination between the United States Atlantic Fleet and the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier, the Commander in Chief, U. S. Atlantic Fleet, had issued Operation Plan 4-41

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on April 21, 1941. This operation plan, subsequently cancelled, is of interest because it established the first specific designation of a task group number for Naval Local Defense Forces of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier. In the Atlantic Fleet Operation Plan, Task Group 6 was a Northern Patrol under Rear Admiral McWhorter. For purposes of planning, it was indicated that Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, might call on the Naval Local Defense Forces of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier to carry out certain temporary and geographically restricted tasks. To furnish a supporting plan for such a contemplated joint-operation between the Atlantic Fleet and Naval Local Defense Forces, a new Operation Order (4-41) was prepared on September 10, 1941, by the Commander, North Atlantic Naval Frontier. Therein, the "Task Organization" was thus listed:

	6.11 Naval Local Defense Force,	First Naval District
		Rear Admiral W. T. Tarrant
	6.13 Naval Local Defense Force,	Third Naval District
	6.14 Naval Local Defense Force,	Fourth Naval District
		Rear Admiral A. E. Watson
	6.15 Naval Local Defense Force,	Fifth Naval District
		Rear Admiral M. H. Simons

        These groups were to support the Atlantic Fleet, to protect shipping, and to cooperate with the Army in maintaining the defense of the coastal frontier. Their specific functions would be those connected with providing for the security of fleet bases, Army shore installations and important harbor waters. When this plan was revised by Operation Order 5-41, on October 30, 1941, the task organization remained the same. Although these numerical designations incorrectly implied that these naval local defense forces existed solely as task groups within the organization of the Atlantic Fleet, obviously such was not the intention of the original directive.

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        In November and December, 1941, many important changes were made to The Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan, Rainbow No. 5, and consequently to the subordinate plans. Change No. 2, issued in November, 1941, established the general outlines for unity of command under The Joint Canadian-United States Basic Defense Plan No. 2 (ABC-22). Therein it was stated that for all matters requiring common action, the principal commanders of United States forces along the Atlantic coast would be five:

        Commander in Chief, United States Atlantic Fleet.

        Task Force Commanders, United States Atlantic Fleet,

        Commander North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier,

        Commanding General, GHQ.

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local defense force of the Naval Operating Base, Newport, under the command of the Commandant, U. S. Naval Operating Base, Newport. There followed a careful statement as to the exact boundaries of sectors and sub-sectors within the North Atlantic Coastal Frontier.

        While this change had been developing, the Commander North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier had been formulating an extensive revision of Plan O-4 (NA-NCF-46). This revision was issued on December 5, 1941, as "Change No. 2" to NA-NCF-46, and brought the organization and operating procedure up to date. Therein were given verbally and in chart form, specific details as to the following:

        Eastern limits of North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier,

        Reference line for coastal sea lanes,

        c. Eagle Division ONE (PE 19, 27, 48, 55, 56)

        d. Patrol Division ONE (PY 12, 13, 15, 16)

        e. Coastal Air Patrol (18 VPB, 1 AVD)

        f. Observation Group (6 ZNP)

        g. Salem Air Patrol (CG Aircraft)

        h. Rockaway Air Patrol (CG Aircraft)

        i. Currituck Air Patrol (CG Aircraft)

        j. Escort Group (To be formed from groups (a) to (i))

        With these, the naval local defense forces were listed and specific patrols areas were assigned without any change and without detailed organization because such organizational responsibility rested with the

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commandants of the various naval districts and the commandant of the Naval Operating Base at Newport, Rhode Island.

        Following the declaration of war, the first important change which affected the organization of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier was the dispatch from the Chief of Naval OPerations, on December 15, 1941 which placed the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Frontier under Category "C" of defense. Under this category, Army and Navy commands were directed to meet the following enemy naval operations: those incident to controlling the sea; those against shipping; minor attacks against land areas. Harbor defenses were to be fully manned, with air support. Long range air reconnaissance was to be provided, when possible. In developing harbor entrance control, outposts were to be established, inner mine barrages were to be put in place, limited outer mine barrages and defensive sea area were to be established, together with inshore and offshore patrol.

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