Description

68 pages scanned

A wartime souvenir book prepared for members of the 48th SeaBees and their families, covering their tour from May 1944 through April 1945 in the Marianas Islands (likely Guam or Saipan).

Key contents:

Command messages from Commanding Officer Commander Joshua T. Davis and Executive Officers Charles F. B. Thiede and Edmund Hollender, praising the battalion’s two-plus years of service.

Narrative accounts of their journey — leaving their previous island posting (“Island X”), boarding a Dutch transport ship nicknamed the “Rhubarb,” crossing to the Marianas, and witnessing a naval bombardment of the island before going ashore into scenes of destruction.

Vivid descriptions of life aboard the transport: twice-daily chow lines, salt water showers, moldy bread, boiled bacon, sleeping on steel decks, and the colorful Captain Murray.

Construction activities — grading highways through jungle and rock, building warehouses, Quonset huts, asphalt runways, and fuel pipeline systems.

Camp life — the post office (75,000 letters/month), barber shop, laundry, movie theater, beer garden, library, and chapel.

Sports — boxing aboard ship, plus baseball (18 wins, 2 losses), softball, basketball, and wrestling on the island.

Company and platoon photos with full rosters for Headquarters Company and A, B, C, and D Companies.

Complete Battalion Roster with home addresses for all enlisted men and officers — hundreds of names from across the US.

Timeline: The battalion was commissioned December 1942, arrived in Hawaii February 1944, shipped out to the Marianas in June 1944, went ashore in August 1944, and began rotation home in April 1945.