Foreword.—A fleet arrives at an advance base. In short order water barges are alongside, boats shove off and land a liberty party at a rather elaborate landing. The party proceeds to spend money at a well stocked canteen and to play ball upon an excellent diamond. When the party returns to the ship it is permitted to watch a motion picture show—which even at that moment is being exhibited on Broadway.
It is all so very simple that we are apt to take things for granted. Of course the ranking officers are cognizant of what has been done, for their correspondence has fairly bristled with information, but unfortunately we are not all ranking officers. To be sure we could read the hundred page report concerning things, but official reports are apt to be dry and for that reason we forego the opportunity to increase our store of knowledge.
But the preparation of an advance base is an interesting task. It makes a story worth telling—let us proceed with the tale.
The Island Which Served as an Advance Base.—The island selected was one of a group of semi-tropical islands. It was six miles in length and had a greatest breadth of three miles. Hills predominated and but few level spots of any size were to be found. Most of the island was covered by a thick growth of cactus and other tropical vegetation of an impassable nature. The northern shore, bald and steep, was indented by numerous beautiful but treacherous bays. A large bay on the eastern coast with a narrow twisting entrance channel afforded an excellent anchorage for aircraft and safe swimming for the personnel.
Cattle grazing was the major occupation of the natives. Prior to the arrival of the fleet it was necessary temporarily to transfer more than a thousand head of cattle to an adjacent island.
Most of the island’s population of 1,200 was quartered in two small towns. A single modern building merely added, by contrast, to the dilapidated appearance of the native dwellings. When news of the contemplated occupation of the island was broadcast, hundreds of small merchants and bumboatmen descended upon this hitherto unknown spot and more than doubled its population.
One man owned most of the desirable land. This was leased from him by the Government for the period covered by the occupation.
Preliminary Preparations.—A capable officer, with the rank of lieutenant, was selected to take command of the “advance party,”
Aviation Field and Inner Harbor |
the selection of this particular man being based on several years’ experience in command of small craft. A retired naval officer, living upon an adjacent island, was recalled to active duty. His work as a liaison officer proved invaluable.
Steps were taken to accumulate and absorb all of the information resulting from a similar occupation of the island twenty years ago, and from the infrequent visits of naval vessels to that place within recent years. A recent graduate of the paymaster’s school was ordered to assemble the equipment and supplies for the use of the advance party and the establishment of a canteen. A cargo vessel was assigned to transport the thousands of tons of equipment essential to line establishment of a marine camp; and a transport was detailed to bring the first contingent of 1,700 marines to the island. Two additional vessels, mine sweepers, with a combined complement of ten officers and 150 men, were designated for the advance party.
The advance party sailed from the United States two weeks prior to the departure of the fleet—maneuvers of the fleet gave them six weeks in which to make all preparations. Enroute, the wireless telephone was frequently used. It permitted the officer-in-charge to confer with his assistants aboard other vessels and facilitated preparations to a marked degree.
Tragedy and Heroism.—The arrival of the advance party was saddened by the death of one of its members. Four enlisted men went swimming in one of the bays on the northern shore. Apparently none of these men was cognizant of the danger of an undertow, always found on a surf beaten beach, and only one man was a capable swimmer. The entire party soon found themselves battling for life against the elements. The lone swimmer, risking his life time after time, saved two of his comrades and made a heroic but futile attempt to save the third.
The Water Question.—The solution of the water problem was one of the largest tasks confronting the advance party. The island was to be occupied during the dry season and the only local source of supply was rain water caught upon a water shed and stored in five cisterns. When in the best of condition this system was inadequate to meet the demands of a fleet. The water shed and cisterns had deteriorated with the passing years and it was necessary for the advance party to make many repairs. Most of the piping had so corroded as to make renewal essential. To augment the source of supply one self-propelled water barge with a capacity of 100,000 gallons was brought from a naval station 700 miles away; and another barge of equal capacity, but non-propelled, was towed from a second naval station 800 miles distant. To insure a factor of safety a navy standard 500-ton coal barge was converted into a water barge with a capacity of nearly 200,000 gallons.
Ample water was available at a small sugar manufacturing town upon an adjacent island, twenty-two miles from the advance base. To permit the expeditious filling of the water barges, it was necessary to lay 500 feet of three-inch pipe from the city mains to the end of the dock. Valuable assistance was rendered by the transportation engineer of the local sugar central. He secured and supervised the work of fifty laborers, making it possible to complete this task in the remarkably short time of six hours.
After one trip the non-propelled water barge was secured to a dock at the advance base. Pipe lines were layed to supply the various activities ashore and a steam pump delivered 25,000 gallons of water each day to the personnel quartered on land. When a rain of unusual and unlooked for intensity damaged the shore stowage system the converted coal barge was utilized as a reservoir and saved the situation.
The sudden increase of the inhabitants of the town resulted in a shortage of water among the natives. The Navy came to the rescue with 100,000 gallons for local consumption.
The base was occupied for about three months by a force varying in strength from 2,000 to more than 50,000. During that time nearly 4,000,000 gallons of water were supplied by these barges. One half of that amount was consumed by shore activities; the other half was delivered to vessels of the naval force.
Other Activities of the Advance Party.—It was necessary to build boat landings. Two were built in the inner harbor, one at the town and one close to the site selected for the fleet canteen camp. Seven were built in the outer harbor. Those landings were supported by piling. A pile driver was secured from a near-by American possession. It was the original intention to augment these landings by the use of floats made of Carlin life rafts but a lack of buoyancy on the part of the floats prevented this. Some of the life rafts were utilized for swimming floats.
A level tract of land having a length of 1,700 feet and a width of 500 feet was selected as an aviation landing field. Ninety natives were employed to clear away the undergrowth and fill in the depressions. Seven baseball diamonds, with portable back stops, were laid out upon this field. In the vicinity of the field was erected a boxing platform and three grand stands to accommodate the spectators. To give added safety to the landing of planes, a mangrove growth, extending from the edge of the field to the water, a distance of 400 feet, was cleared away.
A canteen camp consisting of storehouse, mess hall, canteen, ice house, galley and latrines was erected. An officers’ club, with two adjoining tennis courts and a motion picture exchange, was constructed by the advance party.
This represents only a small portion of the effort expended by die advance party; the tale of their accomplishment is interwoven with all the other activities incidental to the occupation of the base.
The Arrival of the First Contingent of Marines and the Equipment.—The first vessel to arrive was the transport with 1,200 enlisted personnel, 150 officers, and a small part of the equipment. Disembarking commenced immediately upon the anchoring of the transport and was completed in less than twenty-four hours. The self-propelled water barge was utilized to tow lighters, laden with equipment, from the transport to the dock.
Two hours after the arrival of the transport the cargo vessel arrived and was moored fore and aft close to the landing. In less than two hours the marines had built a pontoon bridge leading from the dock to the ship. The first of the cargo to be discharged was the motor trucks. After being shoved ashore their tanks were filled with gasoline and they were then utilized in the transportation of material from the ship’s holds to its new location on land. A lighter was used to take cargo from the off-shore side of the vessel. The lighter was so trimmed that when loaded its beck was flush with the sea wall. Each load was towed from the ship’s side to the sea wall and was then discharged without any additional lifting.
The Marine Camp.—In short order the ground was cleared away, tents were erected, galleys were established, planes were assembled and put in the air, several miles of road were built, guns were assembled and put in position to defend the island, more than a hundred miles of telephone wire were strung, permitting communication between the many places occupied, and an observation balloon floated lazily but alert high over this new city of nearly 2,000 souls.
As no fuel was available upon the base for cooking purposes, the advance party secured and transported from an adjacent island more than 400 tons of wood. This had to be purchased at the rather exorbitant price of nine dollars a ton. The arrival the fleet put an end to this, for the boxes made available by those vessels proved to be a more than adequate supply.
A portable filtration plant purified all of the water used for cooking and drinking purposes. Stagnant water of unsavory odor entered the plant to come forth as water of crystal clearness and absolute purity. Some of the more distant camps were not served by water mains. Small waters wagons were filled from a stand pipe erected on the edge of the aviation field and hauled by tractors or trucks to those camps.
Horses, always essential to a landing force, were purchased on an adjacent island and transported by tugs to the occupied land.
A few weeks later the second contingent of marines arrived. It was equal in strength to the first. After a forced landing in which beetle boats, machine guns and gas were used, they established a camp similar to that previously described.
The Departure of the Marines.—A transport stood into the harbor at seven in the morning. Prior to its arrival all of the equipment had been loaded upon the decks of water barges, coal barges, and lighters. Fifteen minutes after the transport dropped anchor the fleet of small craft was alongside and loading was started. The eight small boats of the transport were lowered and in less than two and one half hours every pound of equipment assigned to that vessel, and every one of the 1,700 men were aboard. The small city had disappeared as rapidly as it had appeared. The loading of the cargo vessel had been expeditiously completed in three days.
The Fleet Canteen.—One month prior to the departure of the fleet canteen party for the advance base the lieutenant in charge and his assistant began to assemble the material essential to the erection and the proper functioning of the canteen. Tents and mosquito bars were borrowed from the marines. Steel cots were procured from the operating base. Lumber, roofing paper, wire screen and nails were purchased. Contracts were let for cigars, cigarettes, candy, cakes and soft drinks. In all, a little less than 100 tons of material was assembled and shipped aboard the same cargo vessel that brought the marine equipment to the base.
It was decided that a flag should fly over the camp. The flag staff was very wobbly and fairly high hut the youngster selected to reeve the halyards did not seem particularly annoyed by that. He climbed the pole with all the agility of a monkey. Little wonder—but a few months before he had substantiated his name, “The Human Fly,” by scaling the first twenty-one stories of the Woolworth Building!
When the erection of the camp was completed and the storehouse had been stocked the personnel was reduced to approximately sixty men. The sale of 75,000 bottles of soft drinks, 35,000 packages of cigarettes, 30,000 cigars, and $15,000 worth of candy is testimony to the fact that these men were not idle. The sales amounted to about $400 a day—this in spite of the fact that maneuvers, recreation periods, and rain resulted in many days going by with practically no sales at all.
The Motion Picture Exchange and other Activities.—The motion picture exchange was located in a spacious building near the dock. This greatly facilitated the matter of circulation and proved much more efficient than retaining the exchange aboard ship. Five men were employed in the exchange; one chief petty officer in charge, another for the inspection and repair of motion picture projectors, and two petty officers to inspect, rewind, and issue programs. For the entertainment of the naval personnel during the occupation of the advance base, 250 of the most recent motion picture productions were purchased. When a film had completed circulation in the fleet it was shipped to some other naval activity. Hundreds of transfers eventually resulted in its being shown aboard naval vessels or at naval stations all over the world. The daily issue of this exchange, which served but one half of the fleet, was fifty programs.
The officers’ club permitted conferences of two hundred or more officers to discuss various naval activities incidental to winter maneuvers.
A signal station established ashore facilitated communications between vessels lying in the open roadstead and those at anchor within the harbor.
A guard mail station located in the motion picture building expedited the handling of official correspondence.
A weekly trip made by tug, insured satisfactory delivery of the fleet’s mail.
One bit of work done by the advance party, devoid of financial return hut certainly worth the effort, was the renovation of a long neglected cemetery occupied by the bodies of one officer and six men.
Range Finder Calibration Beacons.—A party of three officers and three men from the train were assigned the duty of surveying for and erecting beacons to facilitate the calibration of range finders used aboard the fighting units of the fleet. Several days were spent in relocating center marks established long ago by previous surveys. Frequently these marks were located on high hills made almost inaccessible by thick undergrowth and a dozen different varieties of cactus. After this task had been accomplished it was necessary to transport the material for the beacons, three of which were steel towers fifty feet in length, in small boats to the beach, manhandle it to the top of these hills or bluffs, and erect the beacons. A careful survey showed that all towers were within one yard of their proper positions and that the major beacons were at distances of 3,000, 5,000 and 20,000 yards from the central point. At the same time all newly established buoys and lights were located by triangulation.
The Sanitary Side of the Expedition.—A medical officer accompanied the advance party. He cared for the sick members of the personnel and frequently gave professional aid to the natives of the village. In addition to this the doctor disposed of the bothersome land crabs by filling their holes with a mixture of sulphur and corn meal. He eliminated the mosquitoes by the application of oil to all stagnant water. He supervised the proper locating and upkeep of latrines and the immediate disposal of all refuse.
Upon the arrival of the hospital ship all of the inhabitants of the island were given a thorough medical examination and a clinic was established in the town for the treatment of the native sick. These precautions later proved their worth by preventing the spread of an epidemic of measles.
The Maintenance of a Fleet Operating from an Advance Base. —As previously stated in this article, the island selected as an advance base was unable to contribute one single thing to a fleet occupying it. To overcome this difficulty the following ships were employed: Five fuel ships, two colliers, two supply ships, two repair ships, and two hospital ships.
Each one of the fuel ships had a capacity of about 60,000 barrels of oil. These vessels averaged five trips each. The nearest available oil stowage was 700 miles from the advance base and most of the oil was secured from ports more distant than that. Approximately 1,500,000 barrels of oil were delivered by these vessels. Add to this the coal supplied by the two colliers and the fuel taken on board fighting ships while at other ports and we find that it cost very nearly $4,000,000 to maintain the fleet in fuel alone.
One of the supply ships made two trips, the other three. Some conception of their importance can be obtained from the following figures representing fleet consumption while occupying the base: 2,548,590 pounds meat, 4,195,418 pounds vegetables, 527,994 Pounds fruit, and 4,220,390 pounds dry stores.
Upon the two repair ships fell the burden of maintaining the fighting efficiency of the material involved in the occupation. The hospital ships served a similar purpose as regards personnel. A small fleet of mine sweepers and tugs performed their irksome but very important tasks in a most efficient manner.
Conclusion.—The proposition of preparing and maintaining the advance base has been shown to be a surprisingly large one, but it is dwarfed to insignificance when compared to a similar occupation that might be made necessary by a war. The advance base occupied in time of war would undoubtedly be at a much greater distance from the United States than was the one utilized for winter maneuvers. The force of marines engaged in this landing is but a small fraction of the force essential to the solution of the same problem in time of war. The chances are that there would be no adjacent island and it is a certainty that if such islands did exist they could not be depended upon for co-operation. The length of time involved in a wartime occupation would be much greater and the fleet employed would, of necessity, be larger. The question of maintenance would present a much more knotty problem and the harassing of our source of supplies by the enemy would add considerably to its complications.
The occupation of the advance base has been completed. The last ship has left the island and a single caretaker has replaced the 50,000 men engaged in that occupation. If the service has learned and will retain a lesson from this work the money and energy expended upon the task will not have been in vain.