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Archaeologists Uncover Traces of a Pacific Island's

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Archaeologists Uncover Traces of a Pacific Island's Great Guns ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER TRACES OF A PACIFIC ISLAnd’s wARTIME PREpaRATIONS. By Joseph Kennedy he Historic Preservation Officer in American Sa- moa put out a call for bids from archaeologists to survey the uplands above Pago Pago harbor on T the island of Tutuila. Some might have thought he was suffering from a tropical fever when he made that request. Most of the history of that island is bur- ied in deposits close to the shore; what else could be up in those mountains besides wild pigs and lots of jungle? But the official, David J. Herdrich, knew there was a great body of data there that has been mostly buried for JOSEPH KENNEDY E C FFI O RESERVATION RESERVATION P C ISTORI H AMOA S Above: View across Pago Pago harbor, American AN C Samoa, toward Blunts Point (highlighted area): MERI A For defense during World War II, two naval guns H, C were placed on the ridge above the point, and two more guns were similarly placed on the ERDRI H opposite side of the harbor entrance. Left: The AVID J. AVID “upper” Blunts Point gun after recent cleaning D and repainting. The barrel is twenty-five feet long and has a six-inch bore. COURTESY 18 NATURAL HISTORY December 2012/January 2013 December 2012/January 2013 NATURAL HISTORY 19 tary mind to realize that ad- ditional men and equipment were going to be necessary in Samoa, for at that time, as the report, issued in De- cember 1939, enumerated, the islands were defended by one naval officer and fifty- two enlisted men—includ- ing four Samoans—serving . on the USS Ontario (a coal- C N I , burning, seagoing tug built C IFI C A for the Navy in 1912), plus P seventeen land officers, seventy-two enlisted men, one Marine, and seventy- six members of the Fita Fita AL CONSULTANTS OF THE AL CONSULTANTS (a guard made up of native C Samoans recruited into the HAEOLOGI U.S. Navy). C R In the meantime, on Sep- A Munitions bunker at Blunts Point tember 1, 1939, Hitler’s army had crossed into Poland, and the war in Europe was offi- prepare a defense plan. He arrived two months later, and cially off to a dramatic and bloody start. Because of Ger- by July his report resulted in directives that would have a Archaeologists found the upper Blunts Point gun forgotten and many’s alliance with Japan, and in light of Japanese ac- profound effect on island life. rusting; the second gun, lower down the ridge, is a National The history of those residues began in May of 1938, tions in Manchuria and China, it was clear that plans for a Pefley launched an ambitious program that included an Historic Landmark. when Japanese military actions in the Pacific prompted greater American presence in the Pacific were going to be expansion of quarters for officers and enlisted men, the . Congress to direct the Secretary of the Navy to conduct C necessary. The task of beefing up the Pacific military’s role expansion and addition of storage and supply facilities, N I AL CONSULTANTS AL CONSULTANTS , C an assessment of the strategic C primarily fell to the U.S. Marine Corps. On March 22, the improvement of roads, the construction of new roads, IFI C A importance and state of read- P 1940, the Naval Governor in American Samoa received a a new dis- HAEOLOGI iness of United States naval C communication from Washington informing him that a pensary and R bases in the Pacific. In 1939, A OF THE Marine captain named A. R. Pefley was on his way to the new genera- the War Plans Section of the islands to study conditions, make recommendations, and tors, more ATOR ATOR UTUILA C T U.S. Marine Corps prepared Stairs and foundation remains are among many residues of the construction E (LO C a specific report on the de- United States Marine installations built around the guns. FFI ASTERN E O HE fenses of American Samoa, T EPORt”) R h, “ C with a focus on U.S. Naval E INAL C F RESERVATION RESERVATION Station Tutuila—a place that FFI ERDRI P H O AL .J. T: 1988 T: C had been under shaky Amer- D C E & J K ican jurisdiction since 1900. ISTORI RO P H RESERVATION RESERVATION AL . CLAR It was not just about the T P C C AMOA S tiny former coaling station AN ISTORI C H HAEOLOGI the Navy maintained there; C APS AFTER J. MERI R A M A the greater reason for evalua- AMOA Pago Pago Harbor (Area of Detail, above) as mapped by the Intelligence Section, 2nd S tion was that Samoa was a key AN Marine Brigade, Reinforced: The uplands above Blunts Point and Breakers Point were C strategic link between the MERI chosen as sites to each receive two naval guns. A H, U.S. and its allies in Australia C and New Zealand. As diffi- ERDRI more than seventy years. I knew it too, and was pleased cult at as it may be to understand this today, war planners H AVID J. AVID when my bid was accepted. Subsequently, in three differ- back then realized that if Samoa were to fall (and the Japa- D ent sessions, my crew scoured the grounds, identifying, nese were certainly planning on invading), communica- measuring, charting, and photographing the residues of tion and supply lines to New Zealand and Australia would COURTESY what, during World War II, had been a major defensive be severed, and that would have delivered a huge blow to A rusted pulley played a part in hauling construction installation. Allied forces in the Pacific. It did not take a great mili- materials, weaponry, and supplies uphill. 20 NATURAL HISTORY December 2012/January 2013 December 2012/January 2013 NATURAL HISTORY 21 Each gun (barrel and breech mechanism, not counting the mount) weighed some 19,000 pounds; the individual shells weighed 105 pounds and each required a powder charge weighing 39 pounds. These cannons were to guard the entrance to Pago Pago harbor at places called Breakers Point to the east and Blunts Point to the west. The Marines decided that to take best defensive advan- tage of this resource, the four guns, together with all the ammunition as well as the concrete, rebar, and wood that would be required to construct a supporting complex around the guns, should be hauled up into the mountains some 150 to 200 feet above sea level. The route to these po- sitions was through heavy jungle and up 70-degree muddy slopes. There were no roads, or even decent trails, to the HIVES four gun positions. A crusty civilian worker who had just C AR completed a number of difficult tasks on the island com- mented that “the real job would be the gun emplacements.” MUSEUM By this time an advance party of the USMC 7th Defense ARMORY Battalion had arrived, and after taking one look at the tasks involved with placement of the 6-inch guns, it was quickly decided they were going to need a lot of help. SPRINGFIELD After weeks of backbreaking work, with the Samoans to begin the construction of naval defense and antiaircraft doing most of the heavy lifting, it was determined that positions. tramways needed to be constructed in order to send the This occasioned the arrival of tens of thousands pounds guns and other materials up the hills, and the contractors of concrete and many mid- range field guns and anti- aircraft pieces. But most significantly, four huge naval cannons were un- bolted from World War I E C FFI dreadnought battleships O and shipped to Pago Pago. These were 6-inch mount, RESERVATION RESERVATION P 50-caliber Mark VI or C Construction of one of the gun emplacements at Breakers Point conveniences, sent 1 million board feet of lumber up into Mark VIII cannons, mean- ISTORI the trees and scattered out amid the dense jungle. Every ing they had a bore diam- H AMOA DMINISTRATION equipment, and improved sanitation facilities. All of this single piece was recovered by Samoans, who scurried up eter of 6 inches and a barrel S A AN was to be implemented by five large American construc- the trees or disappeared into the bush to retrieve it all. length of 50 × 6 inches, or C ORDS C MERI E A tion firms. Further complications were brought into play by the R 300 inches (twenty-five feet). hardheaded dictate that all building designs had to conform Top photo: Members of the 1st ver the next fifteen months more than 320 inches to U.S. Naval standards. Because the contractors were un- HIVES AND C Samoan Battalion, U.S. Marine R of rain would saturate the island, turning it into a able to adjust the specifications for the various structures A Corps, at arms inspection: The muddy nightmare for the natives and especially for to accommodate the locality in which they were built, the battalion was formed in 1941, ATIONAL ATIONAL the civilian workers and their motorized vehicles. roof on the new bakery, for example, had to be designed to N when World War II was underway O but before the bombing of Pearl One worker estimated that Tutuila got “about half the handle a twelve- to fourteen-foot snow load in a place where rainfall for the whole world.” When it wasn’t raining, and nothing heavier than a few breadfruit leaves might gather. Harbor. Right: At a May 1, 1944, memorial for Secretary of the things dried out a bit (it never really dries out completely While these changes were underway, the Chief of Naval Navy William Franklin Knox, in Samoa), the construction activities kicked up so much Operations in Washington sensed that war might arrive members of the Fita Fita Guard dust that it gave the work crews and natives alike a ca- in Samoa before the island was prepared for it.
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