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7/23/2019 SeaBees Revised
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U.S. Navy Seabees
During World War II
Can Do
J. David Rogers
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ADM Ben Moreell was Chief ofthe Navy’s Bureau of Yards andDocks and the Civil EngineeringCorps. He was promoted in1937, skipping the rank of
CaptainBSCE degree from WashingtonUniversity in St Louis in 1913
and commissioned as a LTJG inthe Navy CE Corps in 1917,during World War I. He servedin the Azores with Navy Under-
secretary Franklin Roosevelt
He attended École Nationaledes Ponts et Chaussées in
France in 1932-33, as a LCDR Admiral Ben Moreell (1892-1978) was Chief o f the Navy’sBureau of Yards & Docks and of the Civil Engineering Corps
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BuDocks developed warplans in the 1930s which
envisioned a massivebuild-up of Navyconstruction battalions
Moreell requestedactivation of these warplans in Dec 1941, after theattack on Pearl Harbor.
The first battalion wasformed in Jan 1942, andinitial Seabee deploymentsbegan in March 1942
258,000 officers and menserved in the Seabeesduring World War II
80% of these forces servedin the Pacific Theater
Moreell was promoted to VADMin 1944 and was the first staffcorps officer and the first
Jewish American to attain 4-starrank in the Navy in June 1946.
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Navy Recruits “ Cream of the Heavy
Construction Industry”Personnel had prior experience with projects like:
Boulder Dam
National HighwaysNew York Skyscrapers
Mines, Quarries, and Subway Tunnels
Ship Yards, Docks, Wharfs, even Aircraft Carriers
Experience Comes with age (average age 37)
Battalions Designed to be:“ Completely equipped and self-sustaining able to
construct airfields, roads, bridges, and buildings at an
advance base and to install operate and maintain itspublic uti lities.”
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350 Seabee units
were formed duringthe Second WorldWar, many fromexisting heavy
construction firmsacross the USA
They were provided
with mili tarytraining anddiscipline,including basic useof weapons, shownhere.
Military
Training
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First projects were construction of patrol base facil itiesin Iceland and construction of graving docks at PearlHarbor, critical to the war effortThe first Naval construction battalion, the Bobcats,were deployed on 5 Mar 1942 and the NCB was officially
named “ Seabees”Their motto was “ Construimus, Butuimus”
Birth of
theSeabees
early
1942
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The romanticimage ofSeabees
appealed toconstructionworkers, who
were eager tocontribute to thewar effort in a
worthwhile way -overseas
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•
Moreell posed the idea for Seabee construction battalions to bedrawn from the ranks of civi lian heavy construction firms in hisinitial proposal, in late 1941. Construction trade and labor unionswere dubious of the concept. Seabees were the highest paid group
in the military and fought in every theatre of WWII• Crucial in Pacif ic island hopping during World War II
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Roles in the Atlantic in WWIIPanama CanalPuerto Rico- “ Pearl Harbor of the Caribbean”North AfricaLandings at SicilyD-Day: Demo units
Pontoon CausewaysHarbor Restoration
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Seabee Unit
Compositions
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During World War II350,000 men served inthe Seabees
There were 151 NavalConstructionBattalions (NCBs) and39 special battalions;each comprised ofseasoned workers.
The average age of aSeabee was 37 years
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164 Special Detachments- Anything from tirerepair shops to Quarrying
Most units were capable of constructing pontooncauseways, roads, bases, airfields and wharf facilities
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The Navy also formed 136 SeabeeMaintenance Battalions
Repairing Marston Mats (PSP) at Henderson Field onGuadalcanal
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39 Special (stevedore) Battalions
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5 Pontoon Assembly Detachments
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Each Seabee unit had its own surveyors
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Seabees also built their own floating
dry docks –
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THE NAVY’S
UBIQUITOUSSTEELPONTOONS
(Naval Lighterage)
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Origins of the Seabee’s
Steel Pontoons
Captain Laycock invites Admiral Moreell to leanon a cigar-box model of a string of pontoons.
• A better way to bridge the gap from ship to shorewas needed, known as Naval Lighterage, or simply“N.L.”
• Idea came from a report written in 1935, followed byobservations of segmented steel pontoonssupport ing the gold dredge Yuba, buil t by BethlehemSteel in California in 1937, for shipping to a remotesite.
• Captain John Laycock began experimenting withcigar boxes and kite sticks in 1940-41.
At left: In September 1941,
the first segmented steelpontoons were deliveredto the Navy at davisvil le,along with the requisite“ attachment jewelry,”
(shown at r ight) used toconnect the units.
Wedge, bol t, and nutattachment employedbetween pontoon cornersand angle stiffeners
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The ubiquitous
T-6 box Pontoon
Tapered Type 7pontoons wereattached to the ends of
pontoon barges,intended to navigatethrough open water.
The T-6 displaced 175 cubic feet Couldfloat in 1.5 ft of water Each pontoon could support about 5.5
tons through buoyancy
The standard Type 6pontoon boxes were 5 ft x7 ft x 5 ft. These were
shipped flat, thenassembled in-theater.
Link pin beingdriven into topangles connecting
adjacent strings ofpontoons
Link pin (left) andlink (right), intowhich it was driven
Breech Plug sp lices used to jo in adjacent angle st if feners
“ Pontoon strings” were fabricatedby employing steel angle stif fenersalong each corner.
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7-12-7 tugboat (shown above and
at bottom left) was assembledfrom Type 6 and Type 7 steelpontoons, with two 1-AT marine
tractor motors for propulsion
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Outboard Motors for
pontoon barges• The Navy used the world’slargest outboard motors; eitherGeneral Motors O2D or Gray-Marine diesels, generating 350 HP.These were about the size of alarge tractor engine.
• The propeller shaft could berotated and turned upward, asshown here. This helped tofacilitate clearance in shallow
water and allow on-boardmaintenance of the props, shouldthey get damaged or fouled. Thisproved to be a wise precaution in
wartime, when uncharted sunkendebris was a daily hazard.
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Pontoon
BargesForward deployedPontoon
Detachments withinthe NCBs usuallyassembled the
pontoons, whichwere shipped flat onfreighters to save
cargo spaceThis shows 3 x 7pontoon barges,
commonly used aslighters, in-theater
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Pontoon Barges and Lighters
• Pontoons were often usedas offloading lighters; they
could haul tons of suppliesashore quickly
• Able to navigate in very
shallow water
• In this view members ofthe 4th Special StevedoreBattalion unload drums ofgasoline and diesel fuelfrom a cargo ship onto a
pontoon barge atGuadalcanal.
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The Navy’s Advance Base Proving Ground at Davisville, RhodeIsland was established in the spring of 1942. This facilitydeveloped and experimented with the steel pontoons that were
used in by Allied forces in the European, Middle Eastern, andPacific Theaters.
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PontoonDrydocks
Pontoons were configured ina variety of combinations toconstruct in-theaterdrydocks, like those shownhere.
P t
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Pontoon
Drydocks intheater
• Drydocks are crucial to hull,shaft, and rudder
maintenance and repair.•Lifted ships out of the waterso that they could be repaired
• Lower Left: A small pontoondry dock being used to effectmaintenance on a PT boat at
Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands
Standard 7 x 30 pontoondry dock; the mostcommonly used in thePacific Theater
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6 x 12 pontoon seaplane barge, carrying aMartin PBM Mariner patrol bomber
Standard pontoon warping barge, used toassemble larger pontoon barge assemblies
6 x 12 pontoon seaplane barge underway,without seaplane. Note ramp at one end.
Load tests on two self-propelled 3 x 1250-ton barges, their maximum capacity
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• 36 Rhino Ferries were assembledfrom steel pontoons. They 42 ft wide
and 176 ft long and fitted with a 14 by20 ft loading ramp
• They could carry 600 tons ofmaterial, about half the cargo load ofan LST (Landing Ship Tank)
•Used by the British and Americans inthe Normandy D-Day landings
• Advantage: could float in shallowerwater than an LST
Rhino Ferries
A rhino ferry carrying truckloads of supplies and equipment, heads for one ofthe Normandy beaches.
Rhino Ferries were powered by Grey-Marine350 HP outboard motors, the largest ever made
P t T
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Above: “ Pontoon Tows” were enormousbarges that were towed to landing beaches, toform landing causeways.
Left: triple pontoon “ teeth,” which wereemployed to conjoin adjacent tows, andthereby extend the causeways
Pontoon Tows
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Boot Causeways
Boot causeways were assembled from pontoons to allow large landingcraft, such as LCTs, LCIs, LSMs, and LSTs to offload their equipment welloffshore, and tapered platforms known as “ blisters,” shown here.
Close-up of an LSM unloading onto theboot causeway blister shown at right
Pontoon landing
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Pontoon landingcauseways
Assembly protocols were developed by theSeabee pontoon assembly detachmentsduring the war to accommodate
increasingly sophisticated landingcauseway systems to effect more rapidunloading of amphibious assault vessels.
An LST is guided tothe end of a tapered‘landing boot’ by
LCM and LCVPlanding craft, whilean LCI unloads itscargo on theopposite boot
blister (1945)
Above: An LSM is coaxed into pos it ion on a tapered
pontoon ‘boot b lister,’ whi le an LCT is being unloadedon the opposing blister.
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Project Sock -1943
The most ambitious pontoon craft of the war was the mobile floating airfield shown here, code-named“ Project Sock.” After testing this concept was deemed impractical to handle sustained pounding bywave action that could expected in forward deployed areas of the Pacif ic.
S lf ll d li h b i l
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Self-propelled lighter barges were crucialto the logistical support crit ical toamphibious operations. This view shows
lighters at IeShima, Okinawa in April 1945.
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Segmented
steel boxpontoons wereused as lighters
and strungtogether as aloading wharffor an LSTduring theinvasion ofGuam in June
1944
Pontoon
lighters
60 t M bil C h i ti t
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60-ton Mobile Crane hoisting pontooncauseways onto an LST
A huge crane on a pontoon barge, ishoist ing a pontoon causeway to lash it tothe side of an LST.
Cutting a pontoon causeway loose from thestarboard side of an LST, prior to deploymentat the beachhead
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In the Pacific Theater, coral reefs preventedthe deeper draft landing vessels frombeaching.
By mid 1944 most Pacific-based LSTs werefit ted with two pre-assembled 2 x 30pontoon causeways, lashed to the side ofthe vessels, as shown at left.
These were then used to allow the LST tounload their cargoes directly onto thebeach, as shown above.
P t t i
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Pontoon stringswere even
employed ashighway bridges
A 3 x 18 pontoon bargewas placed on timberpil ings over the UpperLunga River onGuadalcanal to createa temporary highway
bridge, after thewooden trestlestructure was
destroyed by floods inMay 1944.
Pontoon
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Pontoon
stockpiles Dozens of sub-
contractors
produced theubiquitous Type 6steel pontoonsshown here at Port
Hueneme, whichwere 5 x 7 x 5 ft
Each pontoon
weighed 2000 lbsand were shippedflat, thenassembled onsite
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SEABEES
WERE
RENOWN ASINNOVATORS
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Floating Filling Station
During the assault onTinian Atoll in the MariannaIslands, Seabees of the302nd Battalion operatedpontoon barges as fil lingstations to refuelamphibious alligators
(Amtracs fitted with speciallanding ramps)
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INNOVATION:One of 10 “ doodlebug”landing ramps built bythe Seabees mountedon an Amtracs
The Seabees fashionedthese ramps from scrapsteel taken out of aJapanese Sugar Mill onSaipan.
They allowed Marine Amtracs to scale the 8-foot high clif fs along theWhite Beach landing zone
on Tinian Island, shown atright
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Clearing Jungles
A Seabee uses a special jigframe used to uproot coconutpalm trees.
Men of the 6th Naval
Construction Battalion layingMarston Mat (PSP) atHenderson Field onGuadalcanal.
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Bridge Repairs
On Okinawa an army truckrolls across a batteredJapanese bridge
temporarily repaired by theSeabees with logs andcoral fill .
Men from the 7th Battalionassemble the tower of a pile
driver for use in constructionwork on Okinawa.
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A Cumshaw Pile Driver
Seabees of the 14th NavalConstruction Battalion use apile driver and heavy timbersto build a sturdy highwaybridge across a river onGuadalcanal in the SolomonIslands.
“ Cumshaw” is a nautical termfor the procurement of neededmaterial outside the supplychain, usually by swapping,
barter, or mutual back-scratching. Often involvedbartering with coffee or otherfood items. Officially frowned
upon.
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Cumshaw Washing Machine
A Seabee on a Pacificisland loads his
“ cumshaw” washingmachine. The clothes gointo the drum, which is
then placed on the plankunder the tower. As thewindmill spins, the plunger— an inverted funnel—
goes up and down to sloshthe clothes about in thewater.
Scrounging a flagpole for
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Scrounging a flagpole forthe Marines at Iwo Jima
At the summit of Mt.Suribachi on Iwo
Jima, U.S. Marinesand a Navy corpsmanhastily tie an
American flag to thetop of a steel flagpole hastily
fashioned by theSeabees for theoccasion.
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ROAD
CONSTRUCTION
Roads Across Mangrove
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Roads Across MangroveSwamps and Rivers
Roadway after draining and fill ing
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Roadway after draining and fill ing
of the swamp
C
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Road Construction
M i Th t
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Movie Theatres
When the urgentconstruction work was
finished, Seabeesfrequently built open airtheatres in their camp
areas.Here is one of thetheaters they constructedon the island ofGuadalcanal in theSolomon Islands.
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TYPICAL
AIRFIELD
CONSTRUCTIONin World War II
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Runway Subgrade Compaction
Sheepsfoot rollers packdown coral fil l for anairf ield runway
A 107th Battalion road gradersmoothes out a hardstand for oneof the giant B-29 airdromes on
Tinian Atoll.
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Setting off demo charges in coral reef to
allow collection of live coral for pavingairstrips
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Tracked shovel excavating live coral for
use as pervious runway paving onairfields and roads.
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Seabee pontoons rigged as sprinklertanks to irrigate live coral with seawater
for runway construction on Okinawa.
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Completed coral runway supporting long
range Army Air Corps B-24 bombers
The World’s Largest Airdrome
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The World s Largest Airdrome
Seabee trucks on Tinian Atoll
deposit their load of crushedcoral.
North Field with three of its
four 8,500 ft long runways,parking aprons, hardstands,quarters for aircrews androadways.
R l i th P ifi i WWII
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Roles in the Pacific in WWIIBora BoraGuadalcanal (First construction in combat)KwajaleinGuam
Aleutian Islandsetc
111 Major Airstrips
441 Piers
2258 Ammo Magazines
and more…
Seabees furnished the pole for the flag raising atop Mt Suribachi
It was said of the Seabees: They are soldiers in sailors
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It was said of the Seabees: They are soldiers in sailors
uniform, with marine training, doing civilian work at
WPA wages
Nothing New under the sun –
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gSeabees at work today
Playing Santa for kids then and now
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Playing Santa for kids- then and now
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Building
schools
Di i ildlif
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Discovering wildlife
CONCLUSION
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CONCLUSION
“ The only trouble with your Seabees is that
I do not have enough of them.”Gen MacArthur’s remark to Admiral Moreell
Australia 1944
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A Proud Heritage
References
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References1 of 2
Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks.Building the Navy’s Bases in WWII, v. 1, GPO,1947.
Castillo, Edmund L. The Seabees of World WarII. New York: Random House, 1963.
Cruise Book for Advanced Base ConstructionDepot, Navy 2305: The Admirality Islands,Compiled under the direction of William W.Olmstead, Officer in Charge: 1945.
Seabees at FT Leonard Wood. U.S. Army. 19min. 56 sec. PIN 711014, 1997. Videocassette.
References
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References2 of 2
Alan Goldstein. U.S. Navy-The Seabees. 5 December2001.
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/personnel/seabees/seabee1.html (9 December 2002)
SuBee Enterprises. Seabee Journal: Newsletters
From the Pacific. 1997.http://www.subee.com/seabee/home.html (9December 2002)
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