Talk:Seabees in World War II

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[edit] Source

Copied from www.history.navy.mil, which is in the public domain [1]. --Fang Aili ^talk 15:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Summary (WIP)

Moved from article, unfinished:

The history of the United States Navy Seabees in World War II begins with the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack and the United States entry into the war, the use of civilian labor in war zones became impractical. The Navy therefore created Construction Battalions or C.B. from which the nickname Seabees originated from. Under international law civilians were not permitted to resist enemy military attack. The need for a militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in the war zone was now self-evident. Therefore, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell determined to activate, organize, and man Navy construction units. The first recruits were the men who had helped to build Boulder Dam, the national highways, and New York's skyscrapers; who had worked in the mines and quarries and dug the subway tunnels; who had worked in shipyards and built docks and wharfs and even ocean liners and aircraft carriers. By the end of the war, 325,000 such men had enlisted in the Seabees. During the Second World War, the Seabees performed deeds in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters of Operation. At a cost of nearly $11 billion and many casualties, they constructed over 400 advanced bases along five figurative "roads" which all had their beginnings in the continental United States. The South Atlantic road wound through the Caribbean Sea to Africa, Sicily, and up the Italian peninsula. The North Atlantic road passed through Newfoundland to Iceland, Great Britain, France, and Germany. The North Pacific road passed through Alaska and along the Aleutian island chain. The Central Pacific road passed through the Hawaiian, Marshall, Gilbert, Mariana, and Ryukyu Islands. The South Pacific road went through the South Sea islands to Samoa, the Solomons, New Guinea, and the Philippines. All the Pacific roads converged on Japan and the Asiatic mainland. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rich257 (talk • contribs) 15:59, 2 May 2007 (UTC).