I never knew about this, and I have read about the Pacific War. Two atom bombs meant these guys could go home. Could you imagine the carnage if the Yanks had to invade the Japanese home islands with a fanatical population organised into a militia? I shudder at the thought.
Its existence kept secret throughout the war, the US naval base at Ulithi was for a time the world’s largest naval facility.
BY GEORGE SPANGLER
In March 1945, 15 battleships, 29 carriers, 23 cruisers, 106 destroyers, and a train of oilers and supply ships sailed from "a Pacific base." What was this base? The mightiest force of naval Power ever assembled must have required a tremendous supporting establishment. Ulithi, the biggest and most active naval base in the world was indeed tremendous but it was unknown. Few civilians had heard of it at all. By the time security released the name, the remarkable base of Ulithi was a ghost. The war had moved on to the Japanese homeland, and the press was not printing ancient history about Ulithi.
Ulithi is 360 miles southwest of Guam, 850 miles east of the Philippines, 1300 miles South of Tokyo. It is a typical volcanic atoll with coral, white sand, and palm trees. The reef runs roughly twenty miles north and south by ten miles across enclosing a vast anchorage with an average depth of 80 to 100 feet - the only suitable anchorage within 800 miles. Three dozen little islands rise slightly above the sea, the largest only half a square mile in area.
Remember that the Yanks had only two carriers seaworthy after Midway. Check out "Murderers Row"
