History Commons^™

The Construction Of Airfields During The New Georgia Campaign Of 1943-44: Lessons Learned By The United States Naval Construction Battalions., Joseph Christopher Zimmerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prevalent depictions of United States Naval Construction Battalions (Seabees) were engendered by John Wayne in The Fighting Seabees and the musical, South Pacific. While capturing the ingenious determination that birthed their motto '˜Can Do', these incomplete pictures don't portray the complexity of construction under combat conditions in a harshly unforgiving and demanding environment.

The Seabee's first combat landing was New Georgia. In six months, these battalions built five airfields, granting Allied forces air superiority over the Solomon Islands and Rabaul. Battalion records stored at the Naval Facilities Command Archives, Port Heuneme, California, combined with documents from the National Archives, …

Completing The Circle Around Rabaul: The Seizure Of The Admiralties, February To May 1944., David Osborn Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the operational history of the First Cavalry Divisions conquest of the Admiralty Islands during World War Two as the final phase of Operation Cartwheel. Cartwheel called a two pronged attack; one prong in New Guinea, by-passing large Japanese garrisons and the other in the northern Solomon Islands with the goal the isolation of the strong point at Rabaul.

The material is drawn primarily from U.S. Army records held by the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, records from the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama and other reports.

The study concludes that …