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Naval Base Manus

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Coordinates: 2°01′50″S 147°16′20″E / 2.03056°S 147.27222°E / -2.03056; 147.27222
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Manus Naval Base
Location of the Manus Naval Base on Manus Island among the Admiralty Islands
Base was on the east end of the island
Manus Naval Base is located in Papua New Guinea
Manus Naval Base
Manus Naval Base
Geography
Coordinates2°01′50″S 147°16′20″E / 2.03056°S 147.27222°E / -2.03056; 147.27222
ArchipelagoAdmiralty Islands
Area2,100 km2 (810 sq mi)
Length100 km (60 mi)
Width30 km (19 mi)
Highest elevation718 m (2356 ft)
Highest pointMt. Dremsel
Naval Base Administrative United States Navy
1944-1947
Largest settlementLorengau
Largest bases:
Seeadler Harbor
Lombrum Naval Base
Aerial view of Seeadler Harbor in 1945, with US Navy Fleet Anchorage
Floating ship repair dock ABSD-4 background in Seeadler Harbor with ABSD-2 (foreground) in September 1945
Manus Naval Base, Naval supply depot with piers and quonset Hut warehouses on September 18, 1945
Naval Receiving Station, Lorengau, Manus, November 1944

Manus Naval Base was a number of bases built after the World War II Battle of Manus by United States Navy on the Manus Island and a smaller island just east, Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands chain. The major naval base construction started with the Los Negros landings on February 28, 1944.[1] The Navy repaired and did the expansion of the airfields on the Admiralty Islands. United States Navy Seabee built or repaired the facilities on the islands. The large Manus Naval Base, also called the Admiralty Island base, supported United States Seventh Fleet, Southwest Pacific command, and part of the Pacific Fleet. The base was abandoned by the US Navy after the war.[2][3][4]

History

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Japanese called Los Negros Island the Hyane Island and had built some facilities on the two islands.[5] Manus Island was picked for a major air and sea base as it was near Empire of Japan strong points: 387 miles to Rabaul, 694 miles to Truk, 273 miles Kavieng and 244 miles to Wewak. The other reason was Manus Island's Seeadler Harbor, which offered the largest and most protected Southwest Pacific fleet anchorage. By March 1944 the beaches were secured enough that the Seabees started construction. The first airfield captured was Hyane Airfield which was renamed Momote Airfield. While the airfield was captured the outlining area still had fighting and the airfield was attacked two times while under construction. Hyane Airfield has one 4,000-foot runway in poor condition. On March 10, fighter planes began using the Momote Airfield. Seabees completed all Momote Airfield construction and improvements on June 1, 1944 and turned the 7,800-feet runway Momote Airfield over to the United States Army Air Forces. The newly built air base had a camp, 90 fighters and 80 bombers, a tank farm with 17,000-barrel aviation gasoline that was filled from a small T1 tanker harbor and an ammunition depot. On April 1, 1944 Seabees started construction at Mokerang Airfield on Los Negros Island with the US Army engineers. The existing runway was improved to 8,000 feet and a new second 8,000 feet runway was built. Built at Mokerang Airfield were: a base camp, supply depot, repair depot, and a 30,000-barrel tank farm. At Hyane Harbor Seabees constructed a 500-bed evacuation hospital for the US Army. For the US Navy, at Hyane Harbor Seabees built a waterfront complex: two cargo ship wharves, a repair pier, 800-foot ship refueling pier, and a ship unloading and repair crane. Also starting on June 19, 1944, at Hyane Harbor was a pontoon assembly depot, as it was found that shipping pontoon flat, unassembled took a lot less space in ships. The pontoon depot had a personnel camp and warehouses. For the US Army and Navy a large aviation supply depot was built. For the Navy a 5,000 runway was built and a 7,000-barrel aviation-gasoline tank farm. To support the activity at Hyane Harbor a small-boat repair depot and camp was built. As the built up in the Pacific continued in April 1944, two new camp constructions were started on Los Negros Island: Papitalai Point and one at Lombrum Point. At Papitalai Point Seabee 58th Battalion built a base camp, depot, a PT boat overhaul base, fuel oil and diesel tank farm. Seabee started work at Lombrum Point on April 17, 1944, which become Lombrum Naval Base. At Lombrum Point Seabee built seaplane repair base, a ship repair base, and a Landing craft repair base. Each base required the building of camps, depots, piers and shops. Landing craft base supported LCT, LSM, and a host of smaller landing craft. For ship repair, different sized Auxiliary floating drydocks were towed to the base. The largest USS AFDB-2 and USS ABSD-4 were able to drydock battleships. Also at Lombrum Point Seabee built a seaplane base with a concrete seaplane ramp and 8,000-barrel tank farm. At the captured coastal Lorengau Airfield a large supply depot was built. Lorengau Airfield was a 3,500-foot grass runway and due to lack of space, it was not improved, but a support camp and depot was built at the Lorengau Airfield. Navy Base headquarters was built at Lorengau, near the mouth of Lorengau River. At the Lorengau Navy Base Seabee built a 1,000-bed Navy Hospital 15. The headquarters also had a camp for 5,000 men incoming Troops. Pityilu Airfield, on Pityilu Island was built to support aircraft carriers, with a training center and storage of 350 spare fighter planes for later aircraft carrier use. Ponam Airfield on Ponam Island was also built to support aircraft carrier fighter planes. After the war, most bases were abandoned in 1946 and 1947. Momote Airfield became Momote Airport. Some bases were turned over to the Royal Australian Navy and later to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.[2][3][6][7]

Bases and facilities

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*Repair Base

Airfields

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Mount Hood explodes: the smoke trails are left by fragments ejected by the explosion.
Aerial view of USS Mindanao (ARG-3) after the explosion of USS Mount Hood (AE-11) at Seeadler Harbor on November 10, 1944

Attacks and losses

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  • USS Mount Hood (AE-11), an ammunition ship, exploded on November 10, 1944 in Seeadler Harbor. The 350 men on the ship were killed. She damaged nearby ships, like the USS Mindanao which had 180 crewmen killed and injured by the explosion.[20]
  • USS ABSD-4 was attacked on April 22, 1945, Mitsubishi A6M Zero thought that the large floating dock was an aircraft carriers and damaged the dry dock.
  • USS AFDB-2 was attacked on April 22, 1945 also, damaging section G.

Seabees units

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Main article: Seabees in World War II
  • Seabees working on Manus Naval Base:[2][21]
  • 2nd Naval Construction Regiment: 11th, 58th and 71st Naval Construction Battalion
  • 5th Naval Construction Regiment: 35th, 44th, and 57th Battalions
  • 40th Battalion
  • 46th Battalion
  • 78th Battalion
  • 17th Battalion
  • 58th Battalion
  • 104th Battalion
  • 20th Special Battalion
  • 21st Special Battalion
  • 22nd Special Battalion
  • 63rd Battalion
  • 140th Battalion
  • 561 Construction Battalion
  • 587 Construction Battalion
  • 621 Construction Battalion
  • PAD 1 - Navy Pontoons Battalion

Post war

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On January 1, 1950 Royal Australian Navy (RAN) founded HMAS Seeadler, HMPNGS Tarangau (PNG Defence Force Base Lombrum) at the former US Naval Base. The new base replace the older base at Dreger Harbour, near Finschhafen.[22][23] to replace the RAN base at Dreger Harbour, near Finschhafen.[23][24] The base was renamed HMAS Tarangau, the name of the former Dreger Harbour base,[23][25] on 1 April 1950.[22][25]

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See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seeadler Harbor in World War II.
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References

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  1. ^ "Gamble at Los Negros: The Admiralty Islands Campaign". NHHC.
  2. ^ a b c "Building the Navy's Bases, vol. 2 (part III, chapter 26)". history.navy.mil.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Pacific Wrecks". pacificwrecks.com.
  4. ^ Burroughs, Walter (June 24, 2013). "The Admiralty Islands". Naval Historical Society of Australia.
  5. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Lorengau (Lorangau, Rorengau, Lorungau, Losa or Leronguan) Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG)". pacificwrecks.com.
  6. ^ "Former American Naval Base Manus - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  7. ^ "HyperWar: Beans, Bullet and Black Oil [Chapter 16]". www.ibiblio.org.
  8. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Seeadler Harbor, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG)". pacificwrecks.com.
  9. ^ "Lombrum Seaplane Base - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  10. ^ "Location Former American Naval Store Depot Base - Lorengau - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  11. ^ "Koruniat Island - Koriunat Island - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  12. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Momote Airfield (Hyane Airfield), Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG)". www.pacificwrecks.com.
  13. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Lorengau Airfield, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG)". pacificwrecks.com.
  14. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Ponam Airfield (HMS Nabaron), Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG)". pacificwrecks.com.
  15. ^ a b "Background to Ponam Airfield". October 21, 2012. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012.
  16. ^ "Pityilu Airfield - Pityilu Island - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  17. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - United States Navy (USN) - PV-1 Ventura". pacificwrecks.com.
  18. ^ "Pacific Wrecks - Utility Squadron 2 (VJ-2) - United States Navy (USN)". www.pacificwrecks.com.
  19. ^ "Naval Air Transport Squadron Thirteen, Squadron VR-13, US Navy, based at Eagle Farm Airfield, Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia during WW2". www.ozatwar.com.
  20. ^ "NH 96174 Explosion of USS Mount Hood (AE-11) in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, 10 November 1944". NHHC.[permanent dead link‍]
  21. ^ hoover.org, Seabees Can Do Attitude
  22. ^ a b Dennis, Peter; Grey, Jeffrey; Morris, Ewan; Prior, Robin (2008). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (2nd ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. p. 349. ISBN 9780195517842. OCLC 271822831.
  23. ^ a b c "Base At Manus". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 21 December 1949. p. 1.
  24. ^ Eldridge, Stephen; (member, RAN, 1947–1950). "Verbal History" (Interview).{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ a b "HMAS Tarangau" (PDF). Royal Australian Navy News. 14 (8). Royal Australian Navy. 16 April 1971.
  26. ^ "1st Calvary Division Memorial - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  27. ^ "Remains AFDB / ABSD Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock 2 - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  28. ^ "Remains AFDB / ABSD Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock 4 - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  29. ^ "Wrecks LCVP Landing Crafts - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  30. ^ "Ship Wreck "USS Mount Hood (AE-11)" - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
  31. ^ "Japanese Shipwreck - Los Negros - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
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