FLOATING AIR BASES AND FLYING BOATS: AN HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE TWO SEADROMES ESTABLISHED AT SAIPAN

Abstract

The use of seaplanes and seaplane bases in a military capacity numerically peaked during the Second World War in the Pacific Theater where they were ideally suited for that arena of vast ocean dotted with specks of land. In their drive across the region, the United States Navy constructed numerous seaplane bases in newly captured territory. These bases connected the forward area with the rear for transport, reconnaissance, anti-shipping/anti-submarine, and air-sea rescue roles. At Saipan in mid-1944 two such seaplane bases were established. The first was entirely water-based and broke the norm up to that point in the war in terms of the timeline as it was formed while the Allied operation to capture the island had just begun and the region was still hotly contested. Known as a "forward-area seadrome," new procedural methods were developed there through trial and error and battlefield modification that became a standard operation that was incorporated into strategic plans through the remainder of the Pacific War. The second seaplane base was constructed inside the island's sheltered body of water, Tanapag Lagoon, and ashore at Flores Point out of the necessity to both disband the floating facility and to have more efficient and permanent seaplane operations on the island.