Battle of Morotai - Base Development

Base Development

The rapid development of Morotai into a major military base was a key goal of the operation. Pre-invasion plans called for the construction of three large airstrips within forty five days of September 15, with the first to be operational immediately after the landing. The plans also included accommodation and supply facilities for 60,000 air force and army personnel, a 1,900-bed hospital, bulk fuel storage and handling installations and ship docking facilities. In order to construct these facilities the Tradewind Task Force included 7,000 engineer service troops, of whom 84 percent were American and the remainder Australian.

Work began on base facilities before Morotai was secured. Survey parties began transit surveys of the airfield sites on September 16 which determined that their planned alignment was unworkable. Plans to complete the Japanese airfield were also abandoned as it would have interfered with the larger airfields which were to be built to the east, and it was instead cleared and used as an emergency "crash strip". Work on the first new airstrip (called Wama Drome) began on September 23 after the site was cleared. By October 4 Wama Drome's runway was operable for 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and was supporting heavy bomber raids on Balikpapan in Borneo. Construction of the even larger Pitoe Drome, which was to have two runways parallel to Wama Drome, began in late September and by October 17 it had a usable 7,000-foot (2,100 m) runway. Construction work was accelerated from October 18 after the United States Third Fleet withdrew from providing direct support to the planned landing at Leyte. When the two airstrips were completed in November they boasted three large runways and hardstandings for 253 aircraft, including 174 heavy bombers. Although the air base construction required the destruction of native villages, the American and Australian airfield engineers were assisted from October 1 by about 350 native laborers recruited by the NICA detachment.

Other base facilities were erected concurrently with the construction of the airstrips. Work on fuel storage facilities began shortly after the landing, and the first was ready on September 20. A jetty for oil tankers and a larger tank farm were completed in early October, and storage facilities continued to be expanded until November, when capacity for 129,000 barrels (20,500 m3) of fuel was available. Several docks capable of accommodating liberty ships were constructed on Morotai's west coast, and the first was completed on October 8. In addition, twenty LST landings were constructed on Blue Beach to facilitate the loading and unloading of these ships. Other major construction projects included an extensive road network, a naval installation, 28,000 square feet (2,600 m2) of warehousing, and clearing land for supply dumps and bivouacs. A 1,000-bed hospital was also built after the original plans for a 1,900-bed facility were revised. The main difficulties encountered were overcoming the mud caused by unusually heavy rains and finding sufficient water supplies.

A revision to Allied plans meant that Morotai played a much greater role in the liberation of the Philippines than had been originally envisioned. The invasion of Mindanao was postponed in September 1944 in favour of a landing at Leyte in the central Philippines in late October. The air bases at Morotai were the closest Allied air strips to Leyte and fighters and bombers based on the island attacked targets in the southern Philippines and NEI in support of the landing at Leyte on October 25. After airfields were completed at Leyte, Morotai was also used as a staging point for fighters and bombers traveling to the Philippines.