patrols were successfully infiltrating ashore and reporting information and became an accepted doctrine in amphibious reconnaissance. FLEX 7 A year later, during Fleet Landing Exercise Number 7, Smith had three destroyer-transports. He designated the three companies of the 7th Marines embarked on these ships as the Mobile Landing Group. During the exercise these units again made night landings, either to protect the main assault, or conducted diversionary attacks. The 1st Marine Division was one of the first two division-sized units formed by the Corps. It was established in February 1941 aboard the in Cuba around the nucleus of the First Marine Brigade. The Division's first commander was the amphibious expert, Brigadier General Holland M. Smith. There is no record of an activation ceremony since the division was deeply involved the preparations for FLEX 7. This was the last fleet landing exercise before the United States became a combatant in the Second World War. Notes References Chenoweth, H. Avery; Nihart, Brooke Semper fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines New York: Main Street, 2005. . Fergusson, Bernard The Watery Maze; the story of Combined Operations, Holt, New York, 1961. Friedman, Norman U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2002. Hough, Frank, et al., Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal History of U. S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II Volume 1, US Marine Corps, Washington DC, 1958. Ladd, JD Assault From the Sea: 1939–1945, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, 1976. Martin, Paul B., We Stalk the Enemy. Marine Corps Gazette, 37:5, May 1953. Maund, LEH Assault From the Sea, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1949. Miller, John Guadalcanal: The First Offensive, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1949. Millet, Allan R. Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps, 1980 Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943 Little, Brown, 1947 Smith, Holland M., The Development of Amphibious Tactics in the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps Gazette 30:9, September 1946. Smith, W.H.B. Basic Manual of Military Small Arms Stackpole Books, Harrisburg PA US Navy ONI 226 Allied Landing Craft and Ships, US Government Printing Office, 1944. Military exercises involving the United States United States Navy United States Marine Corps in the 20th century Landing craft