18th NCB - Seabees History. The 18th Battalion was commisioned at Camp Allen, Norfolk Va., August 11, 1942, and transferred that day to Davisville R.I. On September 6, "C" Company was transferred to CB Replacment Group, Fleet Marine Force, San Diego, California. The remainder of the battalion was transferred to the FMF Base Depot, Norfolk. Embarking on September 11, 1942, the unit arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, November 11. "A" "D" and Headquarters companies disembarked at Noumea, while "B" company sailed for Guadalcanal, landing December 6, 1942. On December 7, "A" "D" and Headquarters companies sailed from Noumea for Guadalcanal on two ships, and disembarked at Guadalcanal December 12. More detachments of the outfit arrived at Guadalcanal December 19 and 25. On April 7, 1943, the battalion, minus the rear echelon embarked at Guadalcanal and arrived at Wellington, New Zealand, April 16. The rear echelon arrived April 20. On April 26 the battalion was redesignated as 3rd Battalion, 18th Marine Engineers, 2nd Marine Division. On October 31, 1943 Companies "H" "I" and Headquarters sailed from Wellington for Tarawa. On November 21, and throughout the next three days detachments of 290 men and three officers disembarked at Tarawa, the remainder of the force continued to Hilo, Hawaii, landing December 5. "G" company left Wellington November 29 and arrived at Hilo December 12. Remainder of the echelons left Wellington a few days later and the last detachments arrived at Hilo January 6, 1944. The group left at Tarawa embarked on January 8, 1944, and arrived at Hilo January 21. On April 1, 1944, the battalion was redesignated as the 18th USN Construction Battalion and assigned to Corps Troops, Fifth Amphibious Corps, but remained attached to the Second Marine Division. On May 11, 1944, the battalion minus the rear echelon, left Hilo bound for Saipan. On June 15, 1944 (D-Day) seven shore party platoons landed on Saipan. On D-Plus-1, nine more shore party platoons went ashore, and on D-Plus-2, one shore party landed. Turning their attention to Tinian, a group of two officers and six men went ashore on that island on July 24 (J-Day). On July 26 (J-Plus-2) a detachment of 16 officers and 613 men landed on Tinian. The remaining men arrived on Saipan in small groups over a period of ten days. The rear echelon departed from Hilo in small groups during June and July, with the last group arriving on Tinian September 5, 1944. In June 1945 the battalion was inactivated
I got this directly from an 18th Seabee Veteran. You wanted to know about the 18th landing on Tarawa. The landing assignments for the 18th were diversified and required different disembarking times. For example, first priority was to get the runway repaired. On Day 1, waves of Marine assault troops went ashore. They were pinned on the beach throughout some of the next day. The official 2nd Marine Division memoirs of WWII named "Follow Me" wrote, The Seabees had begun streaming ashore during the morning of D-Plus-2, bringing their heavy equipment in and tracking it over the reef. Marines who had fought for hours with exemplary courage stood in opened mouth admiration as the Seabees drove their bulldozers out onto the strip, still swept by rifle fire, and began smoothing out the shell holes. Photographs of this are in the Marine Corps book. Some Seabees who had other assignments disembarked shortly after, the second and third days. It was only after the third day that the landing area could be cleared for support supplies to get in. Keep in mind the Tarawa battle lasted only 76 hours. Supplies and ammunition did not get on shore until there was room behind the sea wall to land and the direct heavy enemy fire could be contained. For some units in the 18th, it was staying until they could get on the beach after the third day with equipment to build roads, erect piers, observation towers, pipelines and electrical facilities. For a capsule, the 18th arrived on the "Canal" in early December 1942, and stayed until April 1943. They built Fighter Strip "1", bridges and roads and other facilities and nightly manned machine gun positions in their secor of the beachhead. On Saipan, the 18th started disembarking on Saipan on D-Day (Hour-4) under heavy mortar fire. Our assignment was to receive materials and equipment from the shore to designated areas, such as the ammo dump. After the traffic coming in to the shore minimized we were hauling ammunition to the front lines, routing out by-passed Japanese stragglers, and bringing back wounded men. On Tinian, we went in the second day, after some 18th volunteers on the first day built a special ramp to facilitate entry. The rest went in the second day through land mines and snipers. we did alot of Seabee type work, like bridges, roads, tank farms and a hospital. A single plane left our airstrip and caused the end of the war. My tour of duty overseas lasted 34 months.
Thank you, Tarawa was one tough run. It's great to hear details first hand from a Seabee. I am grateful to hear all about the Pacific Operations. Keep 'em coming... 