USS Hector arrives in the Philippines, 1945

For several months in 1944-1945, my dad, Frank Dolan, was stationed on his repair ship, USS Hector, at Ulithi in the Western Caroline Islands. As part of Service Squadron 10, which had converted the lagoon there into a major naval facility, Dad's ship next was ordered to the Philippines. The progress of American forces closer toward victory throughout the Philippine Islands required advancing support elements, like repair ships, into closer proximity to the fighting afloat and ashore.

Hector sailed from Ulithi on February 16th, as part of Task Unit 50.9.6, escorted by the destroyers Bancroft and Bailey. Also joining this task unit were the attack cargo ship Fomalhaut, destroyer tenders Dixie and Markab, and repair ship Prometheus.¹ The task unit was the vanguard of Service Squadron 10, of which the main force would follow in May.

On today's date in 1945, Hector arrived with Task Unit 50.9.6 at her new location in San Pedro Harbor, off Tarragona, in the northwest end of Leyte Gulf near where the Leyte Landings occurred the previous October. While the Battle for Manila raged nearby to the north, Hector's crews began repairing ships and readying other craft for continued operations against the Japanese occupiers.²

Hector remained on duty in Leyte Gulf until the end of March, when she returned to Ulithi for 21 days. Then in late April, Hector was shifted to Saipan in the Mariana Islands, while the main body of Service Squadron 10 was moved to San Pedro Harbor.

For his role in the Philippines Campaign from February through March, Dad received the Philippine Liberation Campaign Ribbon.



¹Prometheus was the sister ship to Dad's previous repair ship, USS Vestal.
²Also on today's date in 1945, American Marines began their assault on Iwo Jima, preceded by 5 days of naval and air bombardment. Dreadful fighting there will last for 5 weeks.

Sources: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships; USS Hector and USS Prometheus War Diaries, February & March 1945

The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf & The Battle of Luzon, 1945

The Liberation of the Philippines began on October 20, 1944, with the landing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's troops on the beaches at Leyte. Next was Mindoro, a major steppingstone to a successful land invasion of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine Islands. But to take its objective the U.S. 6th Army needed to land in Lingayen Gulf, the same area where 3 years before the Japanese successfully invaded and defeated the American and Filipino forces.

The goal was to take this area from which the Americans could then strike at the heart of the enemy defenses in the Philippines. A successful invasion at Lingayen would provide bases to support further operations against the Japanese, as well as deny them shipping lanes in the South China Sea. The U.S. landing force was scheduled to be put ashore on Luzon on S-Day, January 9th.

Source: The Stamford Historical Society

As a prelude to the scheduled landing on this date in 1945, ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet began a devastating ship and air bombardment of suspected Japanese defenses at Lingayen as well as the invasion sites on Luzon. But the fleet paid a heavy price for the role it played. By January 12th, a total of 24 ships were sunk and another 67 were damaged by Japanese kamikazes.

As planned, on the 9th, about 68,000 soldiers of MacArthur's army under Gen. Walter Krueger landed on the Luzon coast without opposition. Over the next few days, upwards of 203,000 troops were brought ashore, securing a 20-mile beachhead, capturing the coastal towns, as well as penetrating up to 5 miles inland.

The successful invasion at Lingayen Gulf allowed for a vast supply depot for supporting other major landings¹ in the Battle of Luzon. By March, the Americans controlled all strategically and economically important locations on the island,²  although small groups of Japanese held out in the mountains until Japan’s surrender in August. In all, 10 U.S. divisions and 5 independent regiments fought on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific war.

¹Two more major landings followed: One to cut off the Bataan Peninsula (captured February 16th) and another that included paratroopers and amphibious units to capture Corregidor at the entrance of Manila Bay on March 2nd. Fighting in Manila was harsh, and it took until March 3rd to clear the capital city of Japanese troops.

²In February, the U.S. Navy began shifting its mobile service force, Service Squadron Ten, from Ulithi in the Western Carolines, to Leyte Gulf in order to provide closer support to the fleet in the naval operations against the Japanese. My father's repair ship, USS Hector, arrived in Leyte Gulf on February 19th, and remained there until the end of March.

Sources: The Two-Ocean War, Samuel Eliot Morrison; Naval Operations in the Pacific from March 1944 to October 1945

Liberty on Mog Mog

Within a few days after the Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands was taken on September 20, 1944, advanced portions of the Navy's mobile service force, Service Squadron 10, began arriving to create an expansive anchorage for the fleet. My father's repair ship Hector, was one of the first ships of the squadron to arrive and begin initial work in the lagoon.

A few days later, a naval construction battalion of "Seabees" arrived to construct an airstrip on Falalop Island. The Seabees also went to work completing a number of uniquely designed pontoon piers, instantly increasing the harbor's function and capacity.

Within days, 6,000 ship fitters, artificers, weldors, carpenters, electricians, and other servicemen of Service Squadron 10 arrived aboard repair ships, destroyer tenders, and floating dry docks. Together they transformed Ulithi into the largest naval base in the world. It was an incredible feat.

Sailors arrive at Mog Mog Landing

In additional to other engineering and construction projects, crews also built a much-needed fleet recreation facility for Sailors and Marines who had been fighting and working nearly non-stop for months.

The tiny 60-acre island of Mog Mog was selected for the facility. It was at first an unsuitable area, swampy and mosquito- and insect-infested. But the swamp soon was cleared and filled in with coral, creating a spacious recreation area.

Construction began on this date in 1944. Several venues for sports, a bandstand, and beverage storage were provided. When completed in January 1945, the center could accommodate 8,000 men and 1,000 officers daily. A 1,200-seat theater, including a 25-by-40-foot stage with a Quonset hut roof was also created, along with a 500-seat chapel.

The intersection of "Hollywood and Vine,"

near the landing area at Mog Mog

Refreshment Stand on Mog Mog Island 

Beach Liberty

For several months in 1944-1945, Mog Mog would have been the only land that most sailors of the Pacific Fleet would have set foot on. As ships returned to Ulithi for replenishment, crewman were allowed a few hours ashore. Landing craft picked up the men from their ships anchored in the harbor, dropped them off for an afternoon ashore, then returned them to their vessels by early evening.

Sources: Building the Navy's Bases in WWII; Mighty Ninety

Sailing for Ulithi, 1944

During the summer of 1944, my dad, Frank Dolan, was stationed aboard the USS Hector at Eniwetok Atoll, only recently captured from the Japanese. While there, crews from Hector repaired numerous ships both alongside and docked throughout the harbor.

By late September, Hector's services were needed at the new forward naval base at Ulithi Atoll for support of Task Force 38, the fleet's main striking force in the latter half of the Pacific War. The rest of the Navy's mobile service force, Service Squadron 10, would follow in the days ahead.¹

On today's date in 1944, Hector and destroyer USS Whitman, forming Task Unit 57.4.8, steamed on a zig-zagging course for the small atoll in the Western Caroline Islands. For part of the nearly 1,400-mile trip the ships had to endure extremely heavy seas and wind, which caused some damage to equipment aboard Whitman. The fierce weather was a harbinger of an unusually violent typhoon season ahead. Repairing Whitman's damage became Hector's first job upon arrival at Ulithi.

Located 360 miles southwest of Guam, 850 miles east of the Philippines, and 1,300 miles south of Tokyo, Ulithi was ideally situated to anchor the entire Third Fleet and to stage operations in the Western Pacific. The atoll was formed by a natural harbor, 19 miles in length and about 5 miles wide, surrounded by 40 tiny islands barely rising above sea level. The Japanese had established a radio and weather station at Ulithi and also anchored ships there early in the war. However, by September 23rd, as part of Operation Stalemate to take Peleliu² and the Caroline Islands, the American invasion forces took the Ulithi without enemy ground opposition. By the 25th, the harbor was completely occupied.

Southwest Pacific

Some mopping up operations were still underway when Hector arrived at Ulithi on the morning of October 5th. The lagoon had just been swept of mines, and there were no port facilities for repairing or resupplying ships. As it reached Mugai Channel, Hector was met by the minesweeper, YMS-177, who directed her to berth 39 within the lagoon.

The remainder of Service Squadron 10 and all its equipment for the new base followed in 4 convoys, the first leaving Eniwetok on October 4th. Remarkably, no personnel or equipment was lost in the immense transport of Squadron 10 from Eniwetok. And nearly as remarkable was the fact that the enemy allowed the transfer to take place unopposed.

Ulithi Atoll
Source: Univ. of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

The task confronting the service squadron at Ulithi in October was to convert its lagoon into a major naval resupply and staging area. Within a month of the occupation of Ulithi, the Navy had constructed a floating, operational base—a vast network of pontoon piers, floating drydocks, and repair yards. It was an astonishing engineering feat.

Ulithi Atoll, late 1944. Foreground is one of several depot islands surrounding
the anchorage (from U.S. Navy photo from NARA collection)
Source: Mighty 90: Official Website of USS Astoria

Ulithi offered a huge capacity for anchorage for the ships of the fleet. It was larger than either the bases at Majuro or Pearl Harbor. Up to 700 ships could anchor within the lagoon at a time, creating the largest naval base in the world. And, with a base there to refit, repair, and resupply, many ships were able to deploy and operate in the Western Pacific for a year or more without having to return thousands of miles to a major base facility like Pearl Harbor or San Francisco.

¹ Other repair vessels would eventually arrive at Ulithi and share in the daunting task of servicing and repairing the fleet's ships, equipment, and shore facilities. These repair vessels included sister repair ships Ajax and Vulcan, the heavy-hull repair ship Jason, internal combustion engine repair ships Mindanao and Tutuila, and several floating dry-docks.
² On September 15, 1944, the U.S. 1st Marine Division landed on the beaches of Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands, 400 miles to the southwest of Ulithi. The amphibious assault was part of a larger operation to provide support for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's planned invasion of the Philippines. At Peleliu, the Japanese introduced a new tactic of fighting, which would be used again in prolonging the fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Rather than meeting the U.S. invaders on the beach, the defenders' main line of resistance was located well in the rear. While a token defense was offered at the beaches, the main force utilized interconnected caves and rugged terrain from which to mount a series of counterattacks. The island was declared secured on the 27th. The cost in American lives proved historic: Over 9,000 were killed or wounded by the time the invasion was over. The Japanese lost nearly 11,000 in killed and captured. The high casualty rate for the Americans exceeded all other amphibious operations during the Pacific War. Peleliu was never used in significant operations against Japan. Instead, Ulithi become the major staging base for operations in the Philippines and the invasion of Okinawa.

Sources: USS Hector War Diary, September & October 1944; USS Whitman War Diary, September & October 1944; USS Hector AR7- Ship's Log (WWII); Wikipedia; Mighty 90: Official Website of USS Astoria; The Two-Ocean War, Samuel Eliot Morrison,  Beans, Bullets and Black Oil, Chapter 18: "Further Stalemate Support," Worrall Reed Carter

Underway for Eniwetok | Service Squadron Ten

On today's date in 1944, the day before the Allied invasion of Normandy, my Dad, Frank Dolan, was sailing from Pearl Harbor. Resupplied and with a fresh coat of camouflage paint, Dad's ship, USS Hector, sailed with a task unit of 4 other ships* for Eniwetok, codenamed "Babacoote." It was on its way to join its mobile service squadron, transferring there from Majuro. Crossing the International Dateline on the 9th, Hector arrived safely at Eniwetok Harbor on the 13th, reporting to the recently commissioned Service Squadron 10 of Task Force 38.

Navy service squadrons—composed of repair ships, floating drydocks, and other floating equipment—supported fleet combat units in the Pacific. During the war they allowed the Navy to operate across the ocean for extended periods of time. Service Squadron 10 (ServRon 10) provided for major naval bases relatively near the Navy's ongoing operations against the Japanese. The Squadron's vital work allowed ships to remain on duty for a year or more without the need to return to a major repair base stateside.

Eniwetok had been in Allied hands since their victorious invasion in February. The atoll now offered the Americans a strategic airfield and harbor from which to launch attacks on Japanese strongholds in the Mariana Islands further north. As a major forward operating base for the Navy and the Marines, there was a lot of work for a repair ship like Hector. Already, hundreds of Allied ships were anchored in the lagoon when Hector arrived. Many of these would be participating in the invasion of Saipan within a couple of days. At its peak in July, more than 520 ships were present in the lagoon.

Marianas Invasion Force assembled in the lagoon at Eniwetok Atoll, June 1944

For 3 1/2 months, Hector supported Task Force 38, the main striking force of the United States Navy through the latter half of the Pacific War. During that time, she repaired numerous ships alongside and in the harbor. Then, September 30th, Hector sailed for Ulithi.

Service Squadron 10 was commissioned at Pearl Harbor on January 15, 1944. It was based first at Majuro (February-May 1944), then Eniwetok (June-September 1944), Ulithi (October 1944-April 1945), and Leyte-Samar, P.I. (May-August 1945). At the height of its activities, the squadron controlled 609 vessels at 5 fleet anchorages.

Service Squadron 10 was designed to be a mobile base, furnishing logistic support, including general stores, provisions, fuel, ammunition, maintenance, repair, salvage, and such other services as required in the support of an advanced major fleet anchorage in the Central Pacific Area. It was directed to furnish similar logistic support to Navy and Marine shore-based units not otherwise provided for in the area. And, wherever possible, it provided services and supplies vital to any of our allied armed forces.

In addition to the Hector, an arresting array of additional repair ships and tenders also were present at Eniwetok. These included the repair ship Ajax; destroyer tenders Piedmont, Cascade, and Markab; repair ship landing craft Egeria; floating drydocks ARD-13 and ARD-15; mobile floating drydock AFD-15; and floating workshop YR-30.

At Eniwetok, before leaving for Ulithi, Hector's welding shop crew posed
for this photograph. Metalsmith, 1st Class Frank Dolan is center, second row.

*Task Unit 17.7.12, was comprised of USS Hector, escort aircraft carriers USS Natoma Bay and Manila Bay, and the destroyers USS Halligan and Haraden.

Sources: USS Hector War Diary, June 1944; Beans, Bullets and Black Oil, Chapter 10: "Service Squadron Ten Organizing at Pearl," Worrall Reed Carter