The 1932 rapid-movement plan dispensed with operations in Micronesia by assuming supply ships could use dispersed routes through the South Pacific. That assumption extended even to avoiding enemy battlecruisers. A rapid fleet advance therefore depended on dispersed merchant vessels reaching the fleet despite the threat to its supply route.
Notable Point · 1:33:55-1:34:33
The exposed supply line in War Plan Orange's rapid advance
A 1932 plan assumed dispersed supply ships could evade Japanese raiders without first securing the Micronesian island chain.