On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare. Edited by Timothy Heck and B.A. Friedman. Marine Corps University Press, Quantico, Virginia, 2020.
Reviewed by Tim Coyle
Amphibious warfare as a maritime discipline is enjoying a renaissance. Many medium-sized naval orders-of-battle now include specialist amphibious vessels together with dedicated marine corps or marinised army formations.
Large amphibious decks are multi-purpose – air capable with organic helicopters up to F-35B STOVL combatant aircraft, their capacious hulls can absorb military vehicles and equipment and land them via ‘connector’ landing craft launched from the vessels’ well docks. These ships are adaptable for Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster relief (HA/DR) missions as well as for military purposes.
Twenty-first century amphibious missions have evolved from the 20th century historical view of assaults on defended beachheads to establish lodgements for follow-on troops and equipment. The contemporary need is to develop nuanced, discrete and flexible doctrine and tactics to address peer-on-peer and ‘grey zone’ challenges.
On Contested Shores seeks to redirect the focus of amphibious warfare from fixation on the major 20th century campaigns of Gallipoli, Normandy and the Pacific war carried out by British Commonwealth and US forces. The book deliberately avoids adding to the voluminous works on these campaigns. Gallipoli is discussed only from the context of US Marine Corps studies in the interwar period as a basis for doctrine development.
In their Introduction to the book’s 23 essays, editors Heck and Friedman examine amphibious campaigns ranging from the Night Attack on Porto Ercoletto, Tuscany on 2 June 1555 to US Marine Corps and Advanced Base Operations Past, Present and Future. Historical perspectives and future conceptualisation are combined to provide an overview relevant to today’s operational environment.
Apart from the famous campaigns, the editors note the relative scarcity of amphibious warfare literature. Contested Shores internationalises the discussion of amphibious warfare with essays on campaigns by German, Russian and Turkish forces.
Amphibious warfare reinvigoration has come as confrontations with major emergent powers, such as China and Russia, have largely replaced counter-insurgency operations among Western coalition forces. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army-Navy has developed a modern fleet of amphibious platforms and supporting air and maritime forces capable of dominating the air-sea gaps of the South China and East China Seas with the stated aim of regaining Taiwan. Russia has resuscitated its amphibious forces to challenge NATO forces in Northern Europe.
US Marine Corps Commandant, General David Berger, aims to re-direct the Corps to return to the sea, integrating with the navy to gain sea control from the shore. Since the early 1990s the Corps had served as a virtual army supplement and equipped accordingly. Berger’s intent can be followed by other countries’ marine forces, particularly by considering the US concepts of ‘assault, withdrawal, raid, demonstration and amphibious support’. Although necessarily reduced in scale, compared to the US, medium powers can tailor their amphibious forces to support national and coalition operations in their strategic areas of diplomatic and military interest.
Chapter 23: The United Kingdom’s Approach to Amphibious Operations, is an exemplar of this evolved capability with a new generation of amphibious platforms and a revised purposing of the Royal Marines. The basis of UK planning is forward deployed littoral strike units of one or more specialised ships with embarked Royal Marine task groups They would operate singly but augmented, where necessary, to form a larger littoral strike group. There will be two strike groups – one for Northern Europe and the other for East of Suez.
Historical ship-to-shore assaults are in the past; the modern version of amphibious warfare features forward-deployed versatility as precision instruments in coalition and multi-agency operations – including HA/DR.
The latter chapters debate these evolving roles and are the link between historical amphibious operations and the future: Chapter 18 – The Role of Amphibious Operations Within the Multi-Domain Operational Construct; Chapter 19 – The Future is Amphibious – the Role of Naval Special Warfare in the Great Power Competition; Chapter 21 – Naval Strategy and the Future of Amphibious Operations and Chapter 23 – The US Marine Corps and Advanced Base Operations examine the way ahead for US amphibious force elements which may be distilled and adapted for medium power navies.
Not mentioned in the book, but of looming importance, is the threat to international and national security through climate change. The amphibious forces’ specialised capabilities outlined in On Contested Shores, may well have to face environmental challenges which could outweigh the military role.
On Contested Shores breaks new ground in providing a compendium of historical amphibious operations over the ages while offering blueprints for future challenges. It is a timely and scholarly addition to the limited literature available on this warfare discipline and is surely a valuable educational aid to amphibious warfare practitioners and force development planners.
