V Amphibious Corps

The V Amphibious Corps (VAC) was a formation of the United States Marine Corps and was composed of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions during World War II. They were the amphibious landing force for the United States Fifth Fleet and were notably involved in the battles for Tarawa and Saipan in 1944 and the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. During the course of the war, V Corps was initially commanded by General Holland 'Howlin Mad' Smith and later by General Harry Schmidt.

Structure
By 1945, the structure of a United States Marine Corps' amphibious corps was broken down into four major subordinate commands with each of them having numerous sub-elements. The first major element of the Corps was three reinforced Marine infantry divisions. The next was the Corps artillery which was composed of a field artillery group made of three battalions of 155mm howitzers and three battalions of 155mm guns and an Antiaircraft Artillery Group made of three antiaircraft artillery battalions. The next major command was Amphibian Tractor Group which was made up of four amphibian tractor battalions and an armored amphibian tractor battalion. The final command was known as the Corps Troops and was composed of a headquarters and service battalion, administrative command, signal battalion, medical battalion, motor transport battalion, engineer battalion, reconnaissance battalion and military police battalion.

Major subordinate units
During World War II, the following major commands served under VAC:

Commanders

 * Holland M. Smith 25 August 1943 – 11 July 1944
 * Harry Schmidt 12 July 1944 – 15 February 1946 (Deactivation)

History
V Corps was formed on 25 August 1943 at Camp Elliott, California, previously known as Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet (ACPF). In September 1943, they moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.