Ghosts of World War II: NAS Banana River by Barbara Marriott

Author:Barbara Marriott [Marriott, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fireship Press
Published: 2018-07-03T23:00:00+00:00

THE WAR POWER OF NAVAL AVIATION

The SNB. Used for training by the Air Bombers Training Unit

Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum

The F4F fighter plane

Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum

PBY training plane and a Navy search blimp

Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum

The crash of an F4F

Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum

CHAPTER SEVEN

1944

Daily Mail, January 17, 1944

EISENHOWER ARRIVES IN LONDON HQ

Daily Herald, May 25, 1944

ENEMY IN FLIGHT FROM HITLER LINE

Rockford Morning Star, June 6, 1944

ALLIES INVADE EUROPE, LAND ON FRENCH COAST

Evening Standard, June 6, 1944

4000 SHIPS, THOUSANDS OF SMALLER VESSELS SHELLED BY 640 GUNS

Chicago Sunday Tribune, July 23, 1944

SMASH BACK JAPS ON GUAM

Chicago Daily Tribune, August 11, 1944

MACARTHUR HITS PHILIPPINES

Chicago Daily Tribune, October 20, 1944

NAVY ATTACKS MANILA AREA

Altoona Mirror, October 26, 1944

JAP SEAPOWER KNOCKED OUT, 30 ENEMY WARSHIPS SUNK OR DAMAGED IN MOST DECISIVE NAVAL ENGAGEMENT OF WAR

Daily Mail, December 29, 1944

PATTON'S 3rd ARMY STRIKES AT "BULGE" FROM SOUTH

Preparing for Invasion

Rumors had circulated for months—the big invasion was coming. Signs were everywhere. The newspaper headlines shouted Eisenhower’s arrival in England, from which location he was to lead the invasion. In the Pacific, Navy forces were attacking multiple targets, sea battles with the Japanese were raging, and America’s forces were winning.

No one knew when or where the anticipated invasion would be. Smart money was on Calais because of its proximity to England. Others believed it would be the French Riviera, close as it was to Africa. But one thing was certain. Copious amounts of equipment were being demanded.

Factories, manned by draft-deferred men, along with a huge labor force of women, were running three shifts a day, seven days a week. Providers of natural resources found themselves toiling on the same demanding schedules. A mighty, powerful industrial nation had been created, and it was producing.

But equipment, even in large amounts and crafted using the latest technologies, was useless without expert men to utilize it. To answer the need for manpower, the draft pulled in more and more male citizens. Categories of deferment changed; men in their thirties and married men without children found themselves in the military.

Jake was not privy to the invasion plans, but headquarters had told him to expect an increase in students in BRNAS’s three major training units: PBM crew training, navigation school, and the fairly new air bombers group.

Jake’s orders were explicit: his command was responsible for the training and preparation of sailors for war, and the release of an everescalating number of shore-based sailors to the combat zones.

The Marines had been supplying fresh combat-trained men to the front since the beginning of the war. From the day of its arrival at Banana River, the Marine Company at Banana River had a policy of sending its inexperienced men to combat school as soon as a billet opened. These men were replaced with marines returning from the war zones. The Navy began replacing its shore-duty sailors either with civilian personnel or with WAVES.

The WAVES Arrive

Jake Gorton had been asked in 1942 to recommend that area WAVES be assigned to his command.

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