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.
The U.S. Navy arrived in September 1944 and found resident about 400 natives, and three Japanese soldiers. The natives on the four largest islands were moved to smaller Fassarai, and every inch of these four was quickly put to use. Asor had room for a headquarters: port director, radio station, evaporator (rain is the only freshwater supply), tents, small boat pier, cemetery. Sorlen was set up as a shop for maintaining and repairing the 105 LCVPs and 45 LCMs that became beasts of all work in the absence of small boats. Mogmog was assigned to recreation. The big island, Falalop, was just wide enough for a 3500-foot airstrip for handling the R4Ds (Douglas DC-3s) and R5C Commandos, which would presently fly in from Guam 1269 passengers, 4565 sacks of mail and 262,251 pounds of air freight a week. This took care of a few services - but where were they going to put the naval base?
Enter "the secret weapon," as Admiral Nimitz called Service Squadron Ten. Commodore Worrall R. Carter survived Pearl Harbor to devise the miraculous mobile service force that made it possible for the Navy to move toward Japan in great jumps instead of taking the slow and costly alternative of capturing a whole series of islands on which to build a string of land bases.
Within a month of the occupation of Ulithi, a whole floating base was in operation. Six thousand ship fitters, artificers, welders, carpenters, and electricians arrived aboard repair ships, destroyer tenders, floating dry docks. USS AJAX had an air-conditioned optical shop, a supply of base metals from which she could make any alloy to form any part needed. Many refrigerator and supply ships belonged to three-ship teams: the ship at Ulithi had cleaned out and relieved sister ship No. 2 which was on the way back to a rear base for more supplies while No. 3 was on the way out to relieve No. 1. Over half the ships were not self-propelled but were towed in. They then served as warehouses for a whole system of transports which unloaded stores on them for distribution. This kind of chain went all the way back to the United States. The paper and magazines showed England sinking under the stockpile of troops and material collected for the invasion of Normandy.
The Okinawa landings were not so well documented but they involved more men, ships, and supplies-including 600,000 gallons of fuel oil, 1500 freight cars of ammunition, and enough food to provide every person in Vermont and Wyoming with three meals a day for fifteen days. The smaller ships needed a multitude of services, the ice cream barge made 500 gallons a shift, and the USS ABATAN, which looked like a big tanker, really distilled fresh water and baked bread and pies. Fleet oilers sortied from Ulithi to refuel the combat ships a short distance from the strike areas. They added men, mail, and medical supplies, and began to take orders for spare parts.
When Leyte Gulf was secured, the floating base moved on, and Ulithi which had had a temporary population the size of Dallas and had been the master of half the world for seven months, shrank to little more than a tanker depot. Once again, it became a quiet, lonely atoll.
Ulithi (or Urushi, or Mackenzie Island) is a coral atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean (Western Caroline Islands). Its islets have a total land area of 1.75 sq mi (4.5 sq km). Its huge lagoon is the world's fourth largest (209 sq. miles).
It was probably sighted by the Portuguese in 1526 and was undisturbed by Europeans until visited by a British naval vessel in 1791. It was the site of a Japanese seaplane base during World War II. It was occupied by U.S. forces in September 1944, and served as a large U.S. naval base for the rest of the war. Its inhabitants are probably partly Polynesian and speak a distinctive dialect. Mokomok is the chief village.
Photo of Ulithi as taken from the NASA shuttle.
There were once, a very long time ago, some sisters in Yap. One in particular loved eating turtle, but her sisters would only give her the bad parts, like the fins. So she decided she was going to find a place where she could eat all the turtle she wanted. She took a coconut cup filled with sand, said some magic, then threw some sand ahead of her, which formed a strip of land that she could walk on. She did this until she came to a spot where there were lots of turtles. By this process, she formed the islands of Ulithi. She was happy at this new place because she could eat all the turtle she wanted, and not just the bad parts. After awhile her islet became overrun with ants and spiders, so she lit a fire and used the smoke as a bridge to go to another islet. Here too she found it overrun with ants and spiders, so again she lit another fire and walked over the bridge of smoke to the islet of Mog Mog where she settled. There is a platform there that was her platform. It is the only place in Ulithi where turtles may be killed.
One of the most lamented deaths occurring on Ulithi was that of the Princess Kalara, daughter of King Ueg. During the initial American landings on the atoll in September 1944, it was believed that Japanese pockets of resistance remained in the then thick undergrowth and foliage on the islands of Mogmog and Asor. The natives were forewarned to retire to the beaches while American planes strafed the interior. For some reason, two of the natives neglected to heed the warnings....they were both struck by gunfire from the strafing planes. One was Kalara, the young and beloved princess of Ulithi. She was taken aboard a hospital ship in the lagoon, but medical care was ineffective; she died two days later. Marking one the the more regrettable phases of war's touching the innocent, Kalara was buried on MogMog with services conducted by a navy chaplain. At the native cemetery on that island, one may observe the coral memorial, topped by a simple white cross bearing the inscription: "Princess Kalara, Christiano, September, 1944"
Pacific Ocean
Somewhere on a Western Atoll where the sun is like a curse, And each long day is followed by another slightly worse, Where the coral dust blows thicker than the desert's shifting sands, And the white men dream of finer, cooler, cleaner, greener lands.
Somewhere in the West Pacific, where a woman's never seen, Where the sky is never cloudy and the grass is never green, Where the gooney birds scream nightly, robbing man of blessed sleep, Where there isn't any whiskey, just two cans of beer a week.
Somewhere in the blue Pacific, where the mail is always late, Where Christmas cards in April are considered up to date, Where we always sign the payroll and never draw a cent, Where we never miss the money, ' cause there's no place to get it spent.
Somewhere in a Western ocean, where the gooneys moan and cry, And the lumbering Deep-sea turtles come up on the beach to die, Oh, take me back to___________ the place I love so well, For this God-forsaken island is awful close to hell......
(Written in 1944 by unknown author at Ulithi)
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