It aims to tell the story of the second largest Allied base in the Pacific war, second only to Pearl Harbor. Now a project is underway to create the South Pacific World War II Museum on Vanuatu’s island of Espiritu Santo. Tens of thousands of tonnes of machinery arrived to bolster the infrastructure built by the Americans, with this number ballooning to an astonishing 9 million tonnes by the time the war drew to a close. The American arrival came unannounced which turned out to be an integral part of their defence strategy against the Japanese who had made advances on the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, raising fears that New Hebrides would be next. In the northern reaches of the archipelago, the island of Espiritu Santo was transformed with the arrival of just over a hundred thousand soldiers, where an even bigger garrison was established. The island’s landscape was forever changed as it was thrust into the modern age with telephone lines going up, barracks and hospitals being built and swathes of land being cleared for airfields. Working with local labour, the Seabees, a construction battalion carved out the first road that ran around the island’s circumference. In order to effectively coordinate defences against the encroaching imperial army of Japan, U.S personnel quickly began setting up infrastructure and facilities. In May 1942 the first American troops arrived on the island of Efate amidst the scurry of coconut crabs and swaying palms. Without these, the campaign in the Solomons would have been unsustainable, and the outcome of the war in the South Pacific very different. Many people have heard of Guadalcanal and the famous campaign in the Solomons.īut far fewer people know of critical role played by the islands to the south, then called the New Hebrides, now the nation of Vanuatu. More than 75 years ago, the war in the South Pacific hinged on control of a number of islands. By Pierre Kosmidis Additional info and photos submitted by Kevin McCarthyĭuring WW2, Vanuatu was overrun by American troops in an effort to stop the advancing Japanese army and prevent them from gaining a foothold in the area.Īt the time, this South Pacific island nation, consisting of a string of roughly 80 islands, was a jointly run British-French colony, administered under the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides.
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