Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo or Naval Base Espiritu Santo, most often just called Espiritu Santo, was a major advance Naval base that the U.S. Navy Seabees built during World War II to support the Allied effort in the Pacific.[1] The base was located on the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, in the South Pacific. The base also supported the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, and US Marine Corps. It was the first large advance base built in the Pacific. By the end of the war it had become the second-largest base in the theater.[2] To keep ships tactically available there was a demand for bases that could repair and resupply the fleet at advance locations, rather than return them to the United States.[3] Prior to December 7th, Pearl Harbor was the U.S. fleet's largest advance base in the Pacific. Espiritu
became capable of all aspects necessary to support the Fleet's operations from fleet logistics in fuel, food, and ammunition, to transport embarkation for combat operations or returning to the continental United States. The ship repair facilities and drydocks were capable of attending to most damage and routine maintenance. Had it not existed, ships would have had to return to Pearl Harbor, Brisbane, or Sydney for major repairs and resupply. The base became a major R and R destination for the fleet.[4][5][6][7]
At the start of the war Espiritu Santo was one of a string of roughly 80 islands under the rule of a joint British and French New Hebrides colony. The administration was the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides. U.S. troops first set up a base in May 1942 on the nearby island of Efate, as a defence against the expanding Imperial Japan.[8] In July 1942 the 1st Construction Battalion (CB) sent a detail from the 3rd CB Construction detachment that was on Efate to Espiritu Santo to build a bomber strip to attack the Japanese on Guadalcanal.[9] The 4th Marine Defense Battalion and the 24th Infantry Regiment both on Efate respectively sent an anti-aircraft battery and an Infantry Company to help the Seabees.[10] Together, working around the clock, they built Turtle Bay Airfield in 20 days.[9] In August the 7th CB arrived tasked with constructing a base.[11] In 60 days they had built a second field and began work on two more.[11] In October the 15th CB arrived.[11] In February the 36th Naval Construction Battalion arrived as did the 40th CB.[11]
Tank farms for: Fuel oil, aviation fuel, diesel fuel, gasoline
Headquarters at Malapoa Point
Barracks
Navy Bank
Fleet Post Office FPO# 140 SF Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides
Mess halls
Navy Communication Center
Troop store
Royal New Zealand Air Force seaplane base
Military supply depot
Espiritu Santo Military Cemetery opened in 1944
Army 122nd Station Hospital
687th Quartermaster Bakery Company
US Army Radar & Searchlight
674th Signal Air Warning Company
Coral mining pits
Trash dump
Built at the bases were personnel housing, piers, roads, shops, power plants, water plants and large storage depots with fuel, ammunition, food and other consumable supplies. Fuel for ships, planes and vehicles was in much demand. The build up of Espiritu Santo was both a defense strategy and then a staging point for the offense against the Japanese. The base supported action in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The base was very active in the Solomon Islands campaign and New Guinea campaign. There were always fears that New Hebrides and Espiritu Santo would be invaded. To build all the bases and airfield tens of thousands of tonnes of equipment was shipped to the base. By the end of the war 9 million tonnes of equipment had been shipped there and over 500,000 servicemen and women had spent some time at New Hebrides and Espiritu Santo.[15][5][16][17]
Airfieldsedit
US Navy seabees built four airfields near the naval base, three to support United States Army Air Forces bombers, one to support fighter aircraft.[8] The Royal New Zealand Air Force and US Marine Corps also operated at the airfield.[18]
Turtle Bay Airfield also called Fighter Field #1 served the Fighter planes, built by the 1st Construction Battalion
The base also supported the US New Caledonia base, 300 miles (480 km) to the southwest and the Fiji training base, 600 miles (970 km) to the east. Crushed coral was used or the runways, ramps and road. Local coconut logs were used in building the base.[19]
(USS AFDB-4 (A-G), built by Mare Island Naval Ship Yard (NSY). Assembled at the base and then towed to Admiralty Islands's Seeadler Harbor. Attacked by air on April 27, 1945. Partially sunk 1989 as a reef.[29][30])
SS President Coolidgeedit
SS President Coolidge sank at Espiritu Santo. Coolidge was built as luxury ocean liner in 1931. In 1941 the US War Department converted the ship to a troopship with a capacity of 5,000. On 26 October 1942 it was sunk by two U.S. Navy mines when it unknowingly entered a mined area. It was run aground to keep from sinking while the crew and 5,340 troops safely disembarked. Two died from the mine explosions: a fireman in the engine room and a captain of the 103rd Field Artillery Regiment who had returned to the ship when he heard men were still trapped in the infirmary. As the ship went down it slipped off the reef and sank in the channel. The President Coolidge is the largest and most accessible wreck dive in the world. The ship has vast array of corals and fish, including barracuda and sharks. The President Coolidge is part of the tentative list of World Heritage Site listing.[31][32][33]
Million dollar pointedit
At the end of the war a vast amount of vehicles, supplies and equipment at the bases was deemed not needed and too costly to ship to the U.S.[34] Also it would have hurt home front industries in bringing all the gear home as there was already a vast amount of military surplus. The U.S. attempted to sell much of the gear to the French for 6 cents on the dollar. The French hoped that by buying none of the gear the U.S would abandon the base and get everything for free.[34] But the U.S had the Seabees to build a ramp into the sea near Luganville Airfield. The gear was then dumped into the sea. The base was abandoned in February 1946.[34] Today the site is a tourist attraction called Million Dollar Point.[35]
There is a plan to build a South Pacific World War II Museum on Espiritu Santo in the town of Luganville. The site will be at Unity Park, Main Street, Luganville, Vanuatu. On 26 October 2017 the South Pacific World War II's Museum Museum Project Development Office opened.[39] A few quonset huts and other remnants can still be found on the island.[40]
Galleryedit
Entrance to the U.S. Navy Base Camp Annex
Espiritu Santo Naval Base dock
Aviation Supply Annex under construction
Pallikulo Bay Pontoon Wharf with USS Tangier unloading supplies
Naval Air Transport Service Facilities
Aviation Overhaul Area
Sarakata River Bridge being built
F6F-3 Hellcats of VF-40 in 1944
base boat repair dock
F4U Corsair over Segond Channel, March 1944
AFDB-1 with USS West Virginia in for repairs off Aessi Island on 13 November 1944
Seabees depot with earthmovers, used to built runways, ramps, roads and foundations.
^1944 SENATE - US Government Publishing Office, Report from commanding officer of United States naval advance base Espiritu Santo
^Seabees report on Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo
^"USS Independence CVL22 & USS Denver CL58 War Damage Report No. 52". public1.nhhcaws.local.
^"The South Pacific's WW2 forgotten base". Ww2wrecks.com. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
^ ab"Map – South Pacific WWII Museum". Archived from the original on 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
^"NH 95045 Espiritu Santo Naval Base, New Hebrides". public2.nhhcaws.local.
^"LIONS and ACORNS and CUBS, Oh My!! | The Sextant". usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil. March 8, 2017.
^ ab"NAVY SEABEE OPERATIONS PACIFIC THEATER DURING WORLD WAR II" (PDF). Web.mst.edu. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
^ ab"Seabee History: Formation of the Seabees and World War II". NHHC.
^Efate, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, Vol II (Part III), GPO Washington DC, 1947
^ abcdEspiritu Santo, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards, and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946, Volume II, US GPO, Washington, 1947, p.228-31 [1]
^US Navy, Naval Construction Battalion Detachment 1007 - Naval History
^"Historical Gallery - 25th Evac". Southpacificwwiimuseum.com. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
^"Santo". Southpacificwwiimuseum.com. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
^"Naval Construction Battalion Detachment 1007". www.history.navy.mil.
^"Building the Navy's Bases in World War II". Public2.nhhcaws.local.
^"New Zealanders in the Pacific War - War in the Pacific | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz.
^"HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 24]". Ibiblio.org.
^"Chapter IX, Floating Drydocks". Building the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps 1940–1946. Vol. I. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. 1947. Retrieved 14 February 2019 – via Hyperwar.
^Budge, Kent G. "Floating Dry Docks". The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
^Angas, W. Mack, Capt. (CEC) USN (November 1945). "Sea Going Navy Yard Follows The Fleet". Popular Science. Vol. 147, no. 5. pp. 121–124. Retrieved 10 July 2012.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Artisan AFDB-1, ABSD-1, IX-521 / IX-525". NavSource Online. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
^Colton, Tim (30 April 2015). "Floating Dry-Docks (AFDB, AFDM, AFDL, ARD, ARDM, YFD)". Shipbuilding History. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
^Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil, By Rear Adm. Worrall Reed Carter, page repair
^"Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock AFDL (This is a substitute number 2806 and 6706 are already in use)". Navsource.org.
^Pablobini; Vleggert, Nico (10 January 2012). "SS President Coolidge (+1942)". WreckSite.eu. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
^"Elwood J. Euart". Web.uri.edu. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
^"Capt Elwood Joseph Euart (1914-1942) - Find A..." Findagrave.com.
^ abcThe Million Dollar Point of Vanuatu, Kaushik Patowary, Amusing Planet web site, November 2016 [2]
^Seabee Junkyard: A holistic and locally inclusive approach to site management and interpretation, Kalle Applegate Palmer, online Museum of Underwater Archaeology, 2014 [3]
^"Espiritu Santo Tourism Association - Allan Power Dive Tours, Vanuatu". Espiritusantotourism.com. 25 April 2022.
^"Espiritu Santo Tourism Association - Scuba Diving". Espiritusantotourism.com. 25 April 2022.
^"Diving the Wreckage of World War II in Beautiful Vanuatu". Houstonia Magazine.
^"Development Office Opening – South Pacific WWII Museum". Archived from the original on 2021-07-18. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
^"Contact". Southpacificwwiimuseum.com. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
External linksedit
Video Espiritu Santo Navy Base Hospital No. 3 #1
Video Espiritu Santo Navy Base Hospital No. 3 #2
Video Espiritu Santo Navy Base Hospital No. 3 #3
Video Espiritu Santo Navy Base Hospital
Video, August 15, 1944 the mighty battleship Idaho arrived at Espiritu Santo
Youtube, BATTLESHIP USS IDAHO REPAIRED AT ESPIRITU SANTO in 1944 in USS Artisan (ABSD-1)1
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Espiritu Santo.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Turtle Bay Airfield.