Naval Base Funafuti | |
|---|---|
US Naval Base | |
 Aerial image of Funafuti atoll | |
 Map of the atoll and its islands, Funafuti is the eastern most island | |
  Naval Base Funafuti Location of Naval Base Funafuti | |
| Coordinates: 08°31′S 179°12′E / 8.517°S 179.200°E | |
| Naval Base |  United States Navy1942-1945 |
Naval Base Funafuti was a naval base built by the United States Navy in 1942 to support the World War II effort. The base was located on the Island of Funafuti of the Ellice Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean. The island is now Tuvalu, an island country in the Polynesian. After the surprise attack on Naval Station Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy was in need of setting up more advance bases in the Pacific Ocean. At Naval Base Funafuti the Navy built a sea port, a small hospital, PT boat base, a seaplane base and an airbase.[1] The United States Marine Corps landed on Funafuti on 2 October 1942[2] and on Nanumea and Nukufetau in August 1943.[Note 1] The Japanese had already occupied Tarawa and other islands in what is now Kiribati, but were delayed by the losses at the Battle of the Coral Sea.[4][5]
- ^ McQuarrie, Peter (1994). Strategic atolls: Tuvalu and the Second World War. Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury/ Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. ISBN 0958330050.
- ^ "Tuvalu (Ellice Islands)". Retrieved 1 June 2012.
- ^ Jersey, Stanley C. (29 February 2004). "A Japanese Perspective: Operations in the Gilbert Islands by the 4th Fleet and the 6th Base Force". The Battle for Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll. Archived from the original on 7 September 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
- ^ "Fetlock | Operations & Codenames of WWII". codenames.info.
- ^ Funafuti airfieldww2db.com
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