Weekly Travel Feature

Searching for World war II Wrecks (Part 3)

Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

Who would ever expect that Bora Bora, reputed to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world, had once been a military stronghold. Indeed it was. In early 1942, 5,000 U.S. Marines and sailors arrived aboard two cruisers, two destroyers, four cargo ships, one tanker and two transports. There were no docks or port facilities. They built them. Bora Bora had no roads, electricity or water supply. A month later they had them all. And three-months after the Americans arrived, the first airstrip in the South Pacific was completed. It was carved out of a coral reef and is still used to this day.

Bora Bora also has, to many at least, the most beautiful women in the islands. But those poor GIs. All Polynesian women between 15 and 50 were moved to a neighbouring island and for recreation the Marines were given volley-ball courts and baseball diamonds. Their concrete foundations can still be seen today. I anchored my schooner in a bay where the Marines first landed—the docks have disappeared—and a native aboard an outrigger came to greet us. The man introduced himself as Louis Picaro, retired schoolmaster and ex-radio operator for the Americans during the war.

We found the bunkers, Quonset huts, actually. They were dug into the ground and covered over. What was so surprising was to find everything so well preserved. Steel doors opened on their hinges and it was possible to unscrew nuts from bolts with bare fingers that held the trusses together The corrugated tin, like that we had seen in New Guinea, was in excellent condition with no rust or corrosion. Manufacturers can produce top quality material when they want to.

It took some doing but we found two of the cannons. We had to cut away the underbrush so we could take photographs. At the base of one gun, scratched in the concrete footing, was the inscription: April 21, 1942, SHAFFER SM 3/C and W.E. HOBSEN SM 3/C BOBCAT.

BOBCAT was the code name for the operation. In June 1946 the Americans sailed away. They left behind a tremendous inventory. Again the French refused to buy any material, even at a ridiculously low price. Tons and tons of material including whole structures were bulldozed into the sea. Water purification and electrical plants were abandoned. The only thing salvaged was the telephone exchange which was sent to Papeete on Tahiti. Many of the untouched wrecks still remain on the harbour floor.

One of the biggest surprises I had was on Bougainville Island in the Solomons We anchored in a quiet cove and a black islander who lived on the shore insisted that he had something to show me of great value. I was only mildly interested but went along mostly to please him. My curiosity waned quickly while trying to keep up with him after an hour into the dense jungle. But then suddenly the earth beneath me became hard. It was tarmac—a runway. The edge of the field was overhanging with tree limbs trailing thorny creepers; but as we pressed deeper, the jungle gave way and there before me was a sight so astounding I found myself breathless. A squadron of perhaps a dozen B-29 bombers was poised as though ready for take-off.

I climbed into the cockpit of one plane. It still had the electrical smell of a new plane about it. I was afraid to touch any dials or switches for fear that the engines might start. A few planes did, in fact, still have fuel in the tanks.

On the remote atoll of Tongareva in the northern Cook Islands I found another landing strip. This one was kept up by the islanders although a plane had not landed in years. An old timer took me to the lagoon at the edge of the runway and pointed to the shallow water. During the war a bomber was making an emergency landing during the night when the generators failed and the lights went out. The natives hastily lit beach fires but the pilot misjudged and crashed into the lagoon. It wasn't a violent crash and the plane more or less settled calmly to the bottom. It's still there, almost intact. We found the skeleton of another plane that crashed on land. The natives use the plane's skin for making fishing lures. Some of the engine parts are as good as new.

North of Tongareva there is an interesting island—Christmas Island, now known as Kiritimati. It was discovered by Captain Cook and down through the ages went uninhabited, until the 1880s when the Ellis Islanders moved in. The island made headlines 50 years ago when Great Britain used the atoll for her atomic tests. Methods were primitive then. Bombs were exploded from a tower and natives were told to sit on the beach with their heads lowered on their knees and not to look up until they were told to.

In the lagoon at Christmas Island I saw more fish than I have seen at any other place in the Pacific. Giant parrot fish, coral fish and huge rays came gliding by and lobster waited to be picked up from the bottom. But no one dared. The Sailing Directions warned that sea life might be radioactive.

I took my motorbike and attempted to motor around the atoll. It's the world's largest, some 50 km long and 30 km across. The roads were excellent but monotonous. After 30 km I gave up. But along that 30km were rows of abandoned barracks and warehouses. The copper wire alone from the fallen electric lines could have made one enough money to retire for life. In two warehouses in London, the island capital, I saw an organ still in its crate, dozens of diesel engines unpacked, building supplies and garden tools and everything a native population doesn't need.

The greatest war prize a native could have on any island across the Pacific is to possess a Jeep. Own a Jeep and he is king. On Lou Island, a very lush volcanic island north of New Guinea, the natives came aboard when we anchored and asked if we could repair the Jeep they had. We took our tool kit from the schooner and went ashore to see what we could do.

It seems the Americans had landed on the island but when they withdrew the clever natives managed to hide one prized Jeep which they had maintained down through the years. We saw the vehicle. It was in remarkably good shape. Where they got the gas to run it, I didn’t know. They had one road on the island, 10 km long between two villages. It was dirt, but well used. They now waited for me and my crew to get the machine running again.

We stepped up to the old war vintage Jeep, put down our bag of tools and opened the hood. We did a double take. We couldn't believe it. There was no engine. And judging by the look of things, there never had been. What the islanders had been doing was pushing the vehicle between the two villages. We had a hard time explaining that we couldn't get it to run like it had been when the Marines were on the island. Needless to say, we lost face.

Over the last several years the lagoon at Truk Island in the Caroline Islands has become famous for divers. It was here that the Japanese navy was bottled up and sunk. A place I think which is even more spectacular is Rabaul on the island of New Britain. Rabaul was one of the most important targets in the Pacific war. The Japanese captured the all-important port two days after they bombed Pearl Harbour. Immediately they began constructing one of the toughest, most formidable bastions ever built. It was virtually impregnable. The combined Allied forces were unable to drive out the Japanese, even after dropping 20,000 tonnes of bombs on the island. The reason was the Japanese had gone underground. They had dug about 500 km of tunnels. At some locations they were even able to pull their submarines into the tunnels. These too can be seen today.

The south Pacific may seem like the end of the world but it really isn't. Thai Airways has scheduled flights to Auckland and there one can board an Air New Zealand aircraft and fly to Tahiti. From there it’s an easy hop to Bora Bora. Next week I am going to remind visitors to Thailand about the coming Loy Krathong and a couple of other festivals.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q. Dear Harold Stephens. Enjoyed your article on WWII wrecks and I would like to add a bit more to it. When I was aboard my yacht in Madang, New Guinea, in 1973, I was told about the remains of a P-38 near the shore on the lagoon side a few miles to the west. With specific instructions, I went looking for it and, sho'nuff, found it. It was pretty torn up but much of the aluminum was still in pretty good shape. No bones or anything but I quite imagine that the pilot didn't make it. Keep them coming, Ed Boden, NC, USA

A. Dear Ed Boden. Thank you very much for your information. It helps document my story this week and I will print it.

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.