Landing at Saidor - Base Development

Base Development

With a large construction programme, engineers made up 29.3% of Task Force. An Engineer Section headquarters was organised on 24 December 1943, only nine days before D-Day, consisting of five officers and five enlisted men. Later a jeep and a driver were borrowed from the 114th Engineer Battalion to provide transportation. The officers did not know each other and therefore were unaware of each other's capabilities. As it turned out, none of them had experience with amphibious operations, and only one had experience in airbase construction, although this was to be their most important task.

Saidor had an existing grass civilian airstrip. Before they had abandoned Saidor in 1942, Australian troops had sabotaged the airstrip by digging trenches across the runway. These were quickly filled in, and the overgrown Kunai grass was knocked down by driving 2½-ton trucks over it. By the afternoon of 4 January, 1,800 feet (550 m) of runway was ready for use. A Piper Cub took off from it the next day. The 863rd Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived on 9 January and improved the strip, permitting twelve C-47 Skytrains loaded with ammunition to land on 11 January. Force wanted an all-weather runway 6,000 feet (1,800 m) by 100 feet (30 m), preferably where a second, parallel runway could be constructed if need be. Construction of the second runway was requested by the Fifth Air Force on 24 January. The 8th Engineer Squadron survey detachment laid out a new runway oriented about 10° from the existing airstrip. The Task Force engineer had the entire site stripped, leaving the subgrade exposed. This was a serious error, as from 10 to 31 January there were only three days during which it did not rain, and 25 inches (640 mm) of rain fell over the period — quite normal for the time of year. As a result, construction was delayed. Gravel was taken from the Nankina River which was laid up to 0.7 feet (0.21 m) deep and topped with crushed aggregate. The rains, and frequent rolling, gave a good water-bound surface. Part was sealed with Bitumen but delays caused by the weather prevented it all being sealed before being overlaid with Marston mats. The runway was declared ready for emergency landings on 4 February but the surface deteriorated under use. The runway was finally completed on 6 March. Construction of the taxiways and dispersal areas continued through April, with the airbase being complete and in operation on 7 May.

On 5 March, the engineers began construction of the bulk petroleum installation. Storage was provided for 20,000 barrels (~2,700 t) of avgas in one 10,000-barrel (~1,400 t) tank and five 2,000-barrel (~270 t) tanks. A fuel jetty was constructed, allowing tankers to discharge into a pipeline which ran over a catwalk to the storage tanks. Work was completed on 8 April. Considerable effort had to be expended on road construction. The 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion had to be assigned to road work, the task being beyond the resources of the Shore Battalion. Gravel was laid up to 2 feet (0.61 m) thick. By late January, the weather and damage to the roads by heavy military traffic forced the engineers to impose a ban on morning road use. By midday the sun had dried out the roads and traffic could resume. Initially, the Nakina River could be forded but the heavy seasonal rains turned it into a fast-flowing torrent. A portable bridge was flown in from Milne Bay and erected in a day but it took two weeks to construct the approaches. In the meantime the troops on the other side had to be supplied by water. To open up the most suitable area for camp sites, another bridge had to be erected over the Nakina. This was a permanent bridge with concrete abutments. A rise in the river level of 8 feet (2.4 m) complicated work, but the 112-foot (34 m) bridge opened to traffic on 17 February.

Local labour was supplied by an Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) detachment, initially consisting of eight Australian Army officers and eleven native police. A week after the landing, 199 native labourers were brought in from Lae. Initially, the ANGAU detachment found it difficult to lure the frightened local people in from the bush, but as the word spread that there was food and safety to be had within the American perimeter, large numbers began to walk in. ANGAU established a native settlement in the Biding River area. By 13 February, 680 native labourers were at work. They constructed camps for the Americans, carried supplies to units in the mountains and brought back the wounded, and worked in the hospital. ANGAU also carried out patrols, providing intelligence on the Japanese positions.

The amphibian engineers had brought six LCMs on the first day. These were joined by another six towed by the six LSTs that arrived on the second day. Unfortunately, within days the rocky beaches and reefs caused nine to be damaged so badly that they had to be sent back to Cape Cretin for repairs. Later in January, the rest of B Company, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment was sent to Saidor. A 100-foot (30 m) lighter wharf was begun on 19 January and completed on 5 March. The unseasoned local timber used in its construction soon took a battering from heavily loaded barges bumping into them in high seas and had to be replaced with steel piles. A 330-foot (100 m) liberty ship wharf was completed on 6 May. Other construction activities included jetties for servicing PT boats, landings for LSTs, a 250–bed hospital opened on 11 May, a quartermaster dump, and a staging area for 9,000.