Trafford Publishing: The Admiralties at War, 1944-1945

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The Admiralties at War, 1944-1945

by Robert M. Smalley

224 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0644; ISBN 1-55369-832-0; US$19.50, C$24.99, EUR16.30, £11.30

The Admiralties at War, 1944-1945 is a history of life and service at the gigantic U.S. Naval Base, Admiralty Islands, South Pacific, which was the main staging area for the U.S. invasion of the Philippines.

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About the Book

Perhaps the last great "Hole" in the public's general knowledge of World War Two in the Pacific is an almost total lack of awareness of the Navy's forward bases that enabled U.S. forces to leapfrog northward from New Guinea to Japan itself.

That hole is now filled, at least in part, by Robert Smalley's highly informative account of the massive U.S. Navy base in the Admiralty Islands, just below the equator and just above New Guinea. Here was constructed, with rapid speed, one of the most immense military bases of all time, to provide fuel, provisions, ammunition, repairs, hospitals, dry docks and a wide range of services for men, ships and planes - including the "unpackaging' of new aircraft and transforming them into the carrier fighters, bombers and torpedo planes which devastated Japanese air and seapower.

Men by the tens of thousands were based in the Admiralties, and the base there, known as Manus, was a place totally removed from western civilization. It functioned through incredible heat, torrential rains and the myriad problems of inescapable humidity. The Seabees who largely built the base and the men of many skills and specialties who made it all work are among those who live through these pages.

Other histories of the Admiralties and other bases do exist, to be sure, but this book is brim-full of first-hand account of Navy life in the islands, in the air and at sea. It deals with ships of all kinds, from PT boats to battleships, with aircraft at war from PBY to B-24, and it chronicles great achievements of American ingenuity and determination.

This book is built around key events:

Conquest of the Admiralties in March, 1944;

Construction of the base and its sprawling "cities" throughout the islands;

Manus as the primary staging point for the invasion of the Philippines, and the unprecedented armada which sailed from there;

The subsequent Battle of Leyte Gulf, which became - unknown to most - the largest naval battle in world history;

The devastating explosion of the ammunition ship Mount Hood, with 3,800 tons of ammunition abroad;

A desperation Japanese air attack on two of the gigantic floating dry docks in Manus harbor;

The chain of events leading to Japan's unconditional surrender, and the aftermath of War's end, including the disposition of tons of surplus equipment.

Manus was the last port of call for scores of Navy warships that became engaged in the Battle of Leyte Gulf at a time when men and equipment were still being unloaded at the invasion beaches. For inclusion in THE ADMIRALTIES AT WAR, historian Thomas Cutler's impressive book, THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF, has been skillfully compressed (with permission of Lt. Commander Culter (retired) and the U.S. Naval Institute Press) into a sizzling nineteen pages of some of the highest drama and greatest warfare the seas have ever known.

Through all of this, the reader meets the Navy's men (and a small contingent of female nurses) in their mess halls and chapels, at their movie theatres and hospitals, their offices, shops and airfields - and we meet Bob Hope and Irving Berlin among the many who came to entertain them. Numerous segments of the book are told in the words of these men. Along the way, one learns that death was never far away in the Admiralties.

MacArthur, Nimitz and Kinkead all appear in the pages of THE ADMIRALTIES AT WAR, but essentially this book is an account of the Base itself and the men who were there over the long haul. Now a retired U.S. ambassador, author Robert Smalley is a veteran of 18 months in the Admiralties, 1944-1945. He has produced a rousing account of this remarkable corner of history.

About the Author

Robert M. Smalley is a Navy Veteran of World War II who served for 18 months in the Admiralty Islands. His career has included radio network news writing, political press secretary to two candidates for Vice President and 17 years of government service. He is a retired U.S. Ambassador.

Excerpts

THE BATTLE

A massive line of towering thunderheads mounted the horizon on a flat gray sea, their growls and grumblings rolling toward the island like bowling balls.

Above the sea, two American B-25 Mitchell bombers began their final surveillance runs over the last island below. For more than an hour the two aircraft had crisscrossed the fifty-mile chunk of mountain and dense jungle, while a third circled protectively overhead.

They circled the coastline and the nearby islands which speckled the sea. They made numerous runs at low altitude, practically inviting enemy fire, but there was none. Nothing moved. There was no sign of life, no glints of sun off gun barrels, no cook smoke curling upward. The immense harbor was empty of sea-going ships to supply or evacuate men, nor were any small boats in view. The palm trees stood in silence.

Cameras clicked and whirred, crewmen straining their eyes, without a glimpse of anything Japanese, human or otherwise. As thunder began to crackle with serious warnings of things to come, the second B-25 completed its last pass and headed south with the others toward New Guinea.

In his headquarters at Port Moresby, General Douglas MacArthur studied the aerial reconnaissance, then picked up a second report from his own intelligence officer, General Charles Willoughby. Contrary to the aerial reports, Willoughby estimated there were some 4,500 enemy troops in the Admiralty Islands.

Laying aside the conflicting estimates, MacArthur rose and stood before a large hanging map of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomons.

The Bismarck Sea was a huge expanse of water straddling the equator, bordered by New Guinea on the south and the curving arm of New Britain and New Ireland to the east. Between them: the Admiralties.

Rabaul was 317 miles to the southeast. The huge Japanese base at Truk was 624 miles north by northeast.

BUILDING THE BASE

Journalist Dale P. Harper called it all, "One of he greatest and most speedy jobs of construction and base organization in world naval history."

In more detail, this is the Base they built: a large ship repair operation was set up inside Seeadler Harbor at Lumbrum Point on Los Negros. Its docking and repair workshops and maintenance were equal to the best in the States.

Two of the largest floating dry docks in the Pacific were situated in waters offshore of Los Negros.

A submarine overhaul base was opened in May 1944. Subs previously based in Brisbane relocated to Manus, greatly shortening their time needed for repair and service, thus extending their time at sea on patrol.

At Papitalai Point on Los Negros they situated the main PT boat overhaul and repair facility, along with a personnel camp. Due to a lack of access roads, its jetty had to be built entirely by hand.

Hyane Harbor, scene of the first American landing on Los Negros, developed port facilities, piers, warehouses, cranes, a repair pier for Liberty ships, and an 800-foot pier. Seabees at Hyane also operated a small boat repair unit.

A massive Naval Supply Depot was constructed along the harbor front on Manus, ultimately consisting of 180 buildings, each containing 6,800 cubic feet, serviced by two major piers, as well as an open storage area. NSD supplied the full range of necessary supplies for the entire base and for forces afloat.

At Hyane Harbor an aviation supply depot became the main sorting and transshipping agency for aviation in the entire Southwest Pacific area. It included an aviation overhaul and repair unit.

Also at Hyane was Pontoon Assembly Depot 1, which assembled 900 pontoons a month for the forward area. This single facility required a pontoon pier for prefabricated steel buildings, warehouses, shops and offices, structural steel factories, and a personnel camp of 40 huts with all utilities for 50 officers and 500 men.

At Papitalai Point on Los Negros a huge oil tank farm was one of the main Seabee projects and eventually had a storage capacity of 630,000 barrels of fuel oil. This was sufficient storage capacity to supply the large Base as well as all major units of the fleet. Papitalai also had a dry dock storage facility.

DECISION AT LEYTE GULF

In the languid tropical waters of an anchorage known as Lingga Roads, near Singapore, a Japanese fleet of seven battleships (including the largest two ever constructed), 13 cruisers and 19 destroyers lay covered in camouflage and held in silence.

The U.S. Navy maintained constant efforts to track the whereabouts of enemy vessels - through radio intercepts, aerial photography and surveillance, submarine searches and other means - but this particular fleet had eluded the Americans for a considerable time.

Admiral Halsey's devastating air strikes against Taiwan and then the Philippines had left no doubt that the Americans would soon invade one place or the other, but the intensive raids confused Japan as to which of those would be the ultimate target of an American invasion force.

During that interval of uncertainty, the fleet at Lingga Roads received orders from Tokyo to put to sea and head north. Their mission: to attack the enemy's warships, troop carriers and cargo vessels at whatever site the invasion occurred.

Many senior officers in that Japanese fleet had long dreamed of drawing the Americans into "a decisive, cataclysmic battle." Some were not keen on risking their ships just to attack cargo carriers and troop transports. Nonetheless, most of them believed that the fight they were looking for was now about to happen. They expected losses, hoped for a little luck, and were bursting with eager confidence.

Under cover of darkness the 39 Japanese ships came out of hiding, fully fueled and supplied, then topped off their tanks in Brunei. Back on course, they were advised that American minesweepers were in the waters off Leyte Island. That meant the Americans would invade the Philippines.

THE MOUNT HOOD

The twin explosions spewed death, injury and damage on everything within a radius of 800 yards. A repair shop ashore was peppered with heavy shrapnel. A shard of grating from the Mt. Hood's boiler room slammed through the side of a cargo ship. The largest fragment to be found of the Mt. Hood itself was a piece of metal 16 feet by 10 feet.

As Pat Edling took off, "the smoke was still low and thick," he said. "As soon as I could get under it I started the mapping runs. But the smoke was still so thick that it clouded up my windshield with what looked like greasy dirt. My main visibility was out of the side windows.

"What really surprised us was that there was nothing to see on the water. We expected some kind of debris might be evident. The water, however, was brownish black and thick looking, like a dirty chocolate milk shake. It seemed that everything had vaporized and all that was left was smoke and thick dirty water.

"We could hear on our radio the surrounding ships calling urgently for medical assistance and other help. We still did not know exactly what had happened, but there was little doubt in our minds as to the severity of the situation...

ANY BOMB DAMAGE?

I was on duty the night the Japanese tried to sink the floating dock. I don't remember the time but it was dark. The Operations Officer, Ensign Rycerz, already had headed for the Op Officer's quarters to sack out. His standard phrase: "Don't wake me etc."

I thought I heard an aircraft flying by but didn't pay much attention to it, as there were aircraft from other flying fields. The tower called and asked if I had heard the aircraft and was wondering if I had any info on them. I told the tower I didn't have anything here, maybe they were going to Mokerang. I didn't hear any explosion or anything of that sort, but then the teletype started dinging and the switchboard was flashing. It was some other outfit calling and asking if we had been bombed.

I was running back and forth between the switchboard and the teletype trying to keep up, answering their queries, and I was getting rushed and frustrated.

On the next phone call I plugged in the phone cord and said, "Mazie's Whore House, Mazie speaking."

Then came the reply. "This is Commodore Boak, and to whom am I speaking?" The commander of the Base himself! There was no way out. I gave him my name and grade and mentioned that things were quite hectic here.

He responded, "I want to know if you have received any bomb damage at Momote?"

I advised him that all we knew was that the aircraft flew by, but there was no hostile action from them, and all was secure.

His reply was, "Thank you, but next time answer these calls in a proper military manner."

"Yes, sir!" I answered. I didn't wake up the Operations Officer since we didn't have an emergency, but I got chewed anyway for not waking him up.

- Bill Borneman

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