Ulithi.

This is coolbert:

See these images thanks to War Bird Information Exchange:

Ulithi atoll during the Second World War. A spectacle as presented NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN!!

"ULITHI ..."

"Its existence kept secret throughout the war, the US naval base at Ulithi was for a time the world’s largest naval facility."

BY GEORGE SPANGLER

"In March 1945, 15 battleships, 29 carriers, 23 cruisers, 106 destroyers, and a train of oilers and supply ships sailed from 'a Pacific base.' What was this base? The mightiest force of naval Power ever assembled must have required a tremendous supporting establishment. Ulithi, the biggest and most active naval base in the world was indeed tremendous but it was unknown. Few civilians had heard of it at all. By the time security released the name, the remarkable base of Ulithi was a ghost. The war had moved on to the Japanese homeland, and the press was not printing ancient history about Ulithi."

U.S. naval combat units anchored at Ulithi. This representing only a portion of the whole! Again, such an assemblage of naval force never to be seen again. This image the one most representative as copied from the War Bird web site forum. You need to go see the rest of them!

"Ulithi is 360 miles southwest of Guam, 850 miles east of the Philippines, 1300 miles South of Tokyo. It is a typical volcanic atoll with coral, white sand, and palm trees. The reef runs roughly twenty miles north and south by ten miles across enclosing a vast anchorage with an average depth of 80 to 100 feet - the only suitable anchorage within 800 miles."

The military presence long gone, Ulithi today a tourist destination, albeit hard to get to:

"Ulithi is part of Yap State, within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The FSM consists of 607 islands scattered across more than one million square miles of the western Pacific Ocean. The islands are grouped into four geopolitical states: from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Yap sit’s in between Australia and Japan."

. . . .

"The lagoon is the fourth largest in the world and the Atoll is the closest land mass to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on the earth. It is simply is a one of the most beautiful spots on the planet."


coolbert.