The Royal Road's stepwise Pacific advance

The Royal Road plan proposed a progressive advance through the Marshalls and Carolines toward Truk. Each stage would establish fleet and air bases to support the next. Its planners expected small-island operations to require fewer land and air forces and a smaller supply train than a direct advance. They also assumed that Japanese defences on the initial objectives would have had little time to develop. A rapid start and completion within three months were promises of the plan, dependent on those assumptions.