Operation Bobcat on Bora Bora
The airport code for Bora Bora is BOB. Hi Bob!
History Alert. Before I continue, doesn’t it seem to you that she has an impossibly small waist? I mean if it was an inch smaller it would look unnatural. Let’s get on with it.
During WWII, Bora Bora became a refueling station for ships and planes traveling from the United States to Australia and New Zealand. The sailors were there to protect this sea route from the Japanese in case they attacked. But, the Japanese never attacked. The sailors arrived a few months after Pearl Harbor in February of 1942 and left a year after the war ended. One of the sailors who went there was James Michener. He used his experiences on the island to write Tales of the South Pacific
If I Only Knew Then…
CBs or Seabees is short for Construction Battalions. They were a militarized construction force formed after Pearl Harbor was attacked. As you can see by the chunk of concrete I found up there, it was the Seabees who came to Bora Bora.
And it turns out that the founder of the Navy Seabees, the man in charge of all this infrastructure built on Bora Bora, was the grandson of a rabbi. He was U.S. Admiral Ben Moreell. So Mr. ‘No we don’t want that’, next time you are driving around showing off your “Pearl of the Pacific”, remember that the road you are driving on was the brainchild of a Jewish guy. And maybe there might be room for a synagogue somewhere.
24 May 1945, 1st CB – 13th, U.S.A
“On the Road the Seabees Built”
Big Guns
These guns were first used in WWI and were made in 1907 by Bethlehem Steel. Eight of them were placed on 4 sides of the island. Not one was ever fired and there is only one left.
Nowadays this canon looks out over the bungalows ready to take aim at any one of those fancy tourists who get out of line.
There is also one pillbox left.
And a shed.
0 Comments