July 1944
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JULY 1944, GIBSON'S GREEN Vt/v<4\ LABEL TEA /fwfulHbskJI Sill IMIIMIt (1TM NATIONAL^ UiilSAVINGS BONDS J. A. D. GIBSON & CO. LTD: THE NAVY LEAGUE JOURNAL W WAR SAVINGS M Tea Merchants • The Official Organ of the Navy League, N.S.W. Branch CERTIFICATES M Royal Exchange, 54a Pitt Street, Sydney—B 7808 THE CARLTON HOTEL • Vol. 7—No. 7 JULY, 1944 Price 6d. 56 CASTLEREAGH STREET 364 KENT STREET JAPAN AT BAY SYDNEY SYDNEY K. A. WOOIDRIDGE. Managing Director. rpHK results of the war to dale have shown that Height of armament should be the deciding factor in final victory. But lei us not deceive oursehes that the Japanese, as our nearest foe, present us with an easy task. Alter thirty months of war, comparatively little has been regained from Japan's lightning conquests at the beginning of the POOLE & STEEL MERCANTILE conflict. PTY. LTD. Japan is not only a maritime nation, but a continental power also. It is MUTUAL conceivable that she will lose her fleet, followed by the slow reduction of her larger territorial acquisitions in Burma, Malay .the Philippines, and the Indies, 43 STEPHEN STREET hut even so. Japan itself would not necessarily fall because of the loss of her INSURANCE CO. LTD. fleet and land conquests since she entered the war. The Allied intention may BALMAIN be to attack Japan proper before attempting the reduction of some of the N.S.W. larger and strongly held territories far distant from Toldo, but the mainland FIRE — MARINE — ACCIDENT of Japan will be a harder nut to crack and demolish than any occupied region, GENERAL ENGINEERS except, perhaps, Chosen ami Manehukuo. These places can only be subdued Be patriotic—insure Australian property in by occupation, and certainly not by bombing alone. BOILERMAKERS an Australian Insurance Company. SHIPBUILDERS The value of bombing is not underestimated, but it has not succeeded in DREDGE BUILDERS bringing any first class fighting power to surrender, and it Is hard to visualise Japan in the Pacific, and Japan in Manchukno and Chosen as the future exception. Plans. Specifications and Estimates prepared If the spirit of Japan's rulers is unbreakable, and the morale of it<l people for Mining Dredges and Plant of all kinds. •Highlinkable, complete victory over her is still far away, despite its ultimate Head Office: Electric Welding and Oxy-Acetylene Work. certainty. TsUgrsms: 117 Pitt Street. Sydney Direct Russian aid would bring the end nearer, but unless such help is forthcoming, the "Victory round the corner" brigade will have to dope their "POOLSTEEL," BALMAIN, N.S.W. SELWYN KING. Managing Director complacency with further large doses of wishful thinking. TaUphonM: WB 1031, WB 1058 Pat* 2 THE NAVY LEAGUE JOURNAL J sly. 1*44 1*44 THE NAVY LEAGUE JOURNAL N«* J NEWEST BRANCH OF U.S. NAVY WINS ITS SPURS QUICKLY Two-year-old organisation of construction engineers oitabliikod after experiences of Wat*. Guam, NEW LIFE RAFT FOR U.S. SHIPS and Philippines, where civilian workers had no weapons—Newest unit read to defend bases If builds. By NCAL STANFORD. Sta« Correspondent of "Tie Christian Science Maaltor" lly Courtesy of 'The Christian Science Monitor"! ^HE Navy's Seabees daily justify those words supplies never could have reached Australia, emblazoned on their banners, "We Do the which (it is hard to believe now) was in real danger a year and a half ago. Difficult Immediately. The Impossible Takes a Little Longer." Their usefulness forced their expansion. From 99 they grew to 3,000, then, by ever-increasing This newest branch of the Navy, 262,00(i quotas to 6,000. 20,000, 60,000, -100,000, and strong, was established as a result of the tragic finally 262,000—the present quota. It is an all- male outfit. No Wave has yet crashed the mem- experiences at Wake. Guam, and the Philippines. bership list of this youngest Navy outfit. There civilian construction workers under con- tract to the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks Recruiting Halted were relatively helpless when surprised by the To-day it is no longer possible to join the Sea- Japanese. They hail no weapons and, being in bees. Recruiting stopped October 31. Approxi- civilian dress, were, if captured, considered guer- mately 115,000 Seabees are overseas now. An- rillas and liable to be shot. Something had to be other 79,000 are at advance-base depots ready to shove off. The remaining 69,000 are getting done. basic training in the United States. The credit for solving this problem of how the There are 59 different building trades repre- Navy should build, maintain, and defend ad- sented in the Seabees, and each of the 197 Sea- vanced bases in wartime, goes to Capt. John R. bees construction battalions includes men from Perry. Civil Engineers Corps, United States these various trades. Each is a self-contained Navy, who received the Legion of Merit for unit. Each one can undertake any kind of base launching the Seabees plan. Approved by Rear building job assigned it. There are blacksmiths, Admiral Ben Morrell, Chief of the Navy's Bureau bulldozer operators, carpenters, concrete work- of Yards and Docks, the first experimental con- ers, crane operators, gas and diesel-engine oper- struction company of Seabees was organised in ators, plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, weld- October, 1941. with 99 men. But it was not made ers, bakers, barbers, chauffeurs—to mention official until Dec. 28, 1941, and the popular name just a few—in each battalion. Seabees, the colloquial form of the abbreviation C.B., which stands for construction battalions, Special Battalions was not adopted officially until March 17, 1942. A construction battalion whose total strength Construction Battalions is 1,081 enlisted men and 33 officers, consists of is headquarters company and four construction The Seabees then are construction battalions. companies. The headquarters company contains They build advance bases, maintain them, and- the overhead personnel—bakers, barbers, store- contrary to the pre-war system are trained keepers. mail clerk*, etc. A new type, of reversible and unsinkablc metal life raf, which will be issued to and ready to defend them. They are present American merchant ships. I, accommodate 20 men and is equipped with a There are also what are called special battali- wherever one finds American forces. charcoal stove, food and water for a month, a canopy, blankets, and waterproof ons. They ara as their name impires—special- One of their first jobs was to nail down the ised groups. For example, a special battalion of cushions. The "morale kit" contains a Bible, song book, pencils, playing cards United States supply line to Australia. Fuel stevedores which moved into one Pacific port and tobacco. (U.S. Office of War Information photograph.)-Courtesy "Herald" bases had to be built from scratch, defences con- cleaned up a very dangerous bottleneck. Sixty- structed so that the Japanese could be repulsed six ships lay at anchor—a target for Japanese whether they attacked by sea or air. Without these Seabee-built bases, convoys of troops and _J (Continued on page 12) Jaly, 1*44 Pa«e 4 THI NAVY LIAOUI JOURNAL Jaly. 1444 THI NAVY UAMII JOURNAL raw * (Continued from page 2) raced across the road and onto a Japanese machine-gun nest. That was the last seen of "A PROUD CAREER" the nest or its occupants. planes—because of inadequate unloading facili- HOPES— AND FEARS — OF THE MERCHANT SEAMAN ties. This particular battalion cleaned up that The Seabees, Navy counterpart of the Army's situation so that to-day cargoes are being dis- Engineers, have been praised by top-ranking ly SIR ARCHMAU HIIRO, In "T»e Navy" charged as fast as they arrive. officials in all the services. "They are the find of this war," says Maj.-Gen. H. M. Smith, of the fHE First Lord of the Admiralty, who has isters and M.P.'s will need prodding if we may Then there is a third type of Seabee division, come to realise how much the nation owes the Maintenance Unit. Composed of 275 men and Marine Corps on duty in Alaska. "Their ingenu- judge from the events of the years between the ity and speed of work have been, indeed, remark- to the dauntless seamen of the British mercantile two world wars when officers and men in en- officers, these units maintain the bases the con- marine, has declared that service under the Red struction battalions establish. They repair able," says Maj.-Gen. R. J. Mitchell, Commanding forced idleness, owing to the longest and severest General of the First Marine air wing. "They Ensign is "a proud career." All who are con- depression which the industry had ever experi- bombed buildings, keep airfields in condition, cerned with the future of the industry—owners, unload cargoes. continue to distinguish themselves wherever they enced, were left to fare as best they might with- may be found," said Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. officers and men—are united in the resolve to out a helping hand or even a word of sympathy. The Seabees, taught to fight as well as to "The Navy will remember this war by its Sea- make it, in fact as well as in word, "a proud build, are to-day in the thick of practically bees," said Vice-Admiral W. L. Calhoun, Com- career" if the electors, through the ballot box The shipowners are now heart and soul in the every amphibious attack staged by the Navy mander of the Pacific Service Force. and by other means, will insist after the war fight for better conditions of life on board our and Marines.