LST-917 and other LST ships unloading at Lingayen Gulf January 1945 China_Japan_Philippines_1945_WW2map

Naval Base Lingayen was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

base built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Lingayen Gulf Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central (Luzon), Cordillera Central. The Agno ...

on the northwestern Island of

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. The base was founded after the

Invasion of Lingayen Gulf The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf (; ; ; ), 3–13 January 1945, was an Allies of World War II, Allied Amphibious warfare, amphibious operation in the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Philippines during World War II. In the early morning of 6 Janua ...

on January 9, 1945, at

Lingayen Lingayen, officially the Municipality of Lingayen (; ; ; ), is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality and capital of the Philippine Province, province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 10 ...

city and the surrounding gulf. The Naval base was used to support the later operations at

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

and the rest of

Luzon Island Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, a ...

and then at

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

. Lingayen Gulf offered excellent fleet anchorage.

History

US Navy Seabee pontoon battalion landed with the troops at

on January 9, 1945. The Seabee task was building pontoon piers out into Lingayen Gulf so the massive about of supplies needed for the invasion could be unloaded quickly. Over 90% of the invasion supplies were unloaded on the pontoon piers. Seabee built a Naval Base

Headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

at the city of

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

on the north east side of Lingayen Gulf. A supply depot was built at Lingayen, US Navy Advance Base 6. The US Army had its Headquarters at San Fernando also, called Base M. The Army had a number of camps around Lingayen Gulf.

Bases and facilities

*San Fernando, La Union Naval section base, Harbor HQ, Base HQ **Radar station **Naval hospital **Fleet anchorage **Fleet Post office 3960 SF **Boat pool (to get to ships and other Lingayen Gulf facilities) **Look out tower **Base camp
Lingayen Gulf: *

Pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

*Supply depot, Army and Navy *Seabee Camp *Seabee depot *Seabee sawmill *Coral quarry *Camp,

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

and

mess hall The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

Power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

Ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

depot *

Aviation gasoline Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, wh ...

Tank farm * USS Quapaw (ATF-110) tug *

USS Piedmont (AD-17) USS ''Piedmont'' (AD–17) was a built during World War II for the United States Navy. Her task was to service destroyers in, or near, battle areas and to keep them fit for duty. She served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, the Cold Wa ...

destroyer tender *

USS Agawam (AOG-6) USS ''Agawam'' (AOG-6) was a acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations. The second warship to be named ''Agawam'' by the Navy, ''AOG-6'' was laid down on 7 S ...

Gas tanker * USS Severn (AO-61) Fleet oiler * USS Thuban (AKA-19) Stores Ship

PT Boat Sual Bay

A large

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, and it was valued for its maneuverability and speed. However, PT boats were hampe ...

Base was built at Sual Bay's port of Sual at

Sual Sual, officially the Municipality of Sual (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 39,091 people. Sual is one of the towns where the Spanish galleon brought their ...

at . Motor torpedo boat tender

USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) USS ''Wachapreague'' (AGP-8) was a motor torpedo boat tender in commission in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing service in the latter part of World War II. After her Navy decommissioning, she was in commission in the United Sta ...

help keep the boat supplied and running.

Airfields

Lingayen Airfield Lingayen Airport ( Filipino: ''Paliparan ng Lingayen'', Ilocano: ''Pagtayaban ti Lingayen'') is the airport serving the general area of Lingayen, the capital of the province of Pangasinan in the Philippines. It is one of two airports in the pr ...

at the Lingayen beach, ( 6th Army) now Lingayen Airport. * San Fernando Airfield near Naval Base Headquarters at San Fernando, now San Fernando Airport. *

Mangaldan Airfield Mangaldan Airfield is a World War II airfield located north of the town of Mangaldan, near Lingayen Gulf, to the east of Dagupan in the province of Pangasinan on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It was abandoned after the war. History T ...

US Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

, near Port of Lingayen, abandoned after war. * Rosales Airfield inland Airfield, now Rosales Airport.

Seaplane Base Lingayen

Seaplane base was built in Cabalitan Bay at Cabalitan Island at The seaplane were served by the

seaplane tender A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

s: USS Barataria (AVP-33) and

USS Currituck (AV-7) USS ''Currituck'' (AV-7) was the first of four Currituck-class seaplane tender, ''Currituck'' class seaplane tenders, and was nicknamed the ''Wild Goose''. She was built during World War II and served during the Cold War. The second US ship to b ...

. Later the Seaplane base was moved to Sual Bay. The US Navy's VPB-71, Patrol Bombing Squadron 71, operated

Consolidated PBY Catalina The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In U.S. Army service, it was designated as the OA- ...

type PBY-5A, called "Black Cat" out of the seaplane bases. On February 28, 1945,

VP-28 VP-28 was a Patrol Squadron of the U.S. Navy. The squadron was established as Bombing Squadron 108 (VB-108) on 1 July 1943, redesignated Patrol Bombing Squadron 108 (VPB-108) on 1 October 1944, redesignated Patrol Squadron 108 (VP-108) on 15 May ...

arrived operating

Martin PBM Mariner The Martin PBM Mariner is a twin-engine American Maritime patrol aircraft, patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War era. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina and Consolidated PB2Y Coronado, PB2Y C ...

s. The Black Cat and Martin PBM, did antisubmarine patrols and attacked Empire of Japan shipping in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

. The

USS Tangier (AV-8) The second USS ''Tangier'' (AV-8) was a Maritime Commission type C-3 cargo ship, converted to a seaplane tender in the United States Navy during World War II. The ship, the first of the C-3s to be launched and significant in a revival of Paci ...

took over the seaplane tender duties on March 13. US Navy Seabees built seaplane ramps and bases both at Sual Bay and Cabalitan Island.

Seabee units

*115th Construction Battalion *102nd Construction Battalion *1st Special Naval Construction Battalion, Sept. 1945 only *Naval Construction Maintenance Unit 606 *Seabee Pontoon battalion Lingayen33qjf

Loses

The invasion of Lingayen Gulf was costly for the US Navy, from December 14, 1944, to January 13, 1945, 24 ships were sunk and 67 were damaged by

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

attack planes. In the attacks, 746 seamen were killed and 1,365 wounded. Most of the ships were with the

United States Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

and

United States Seventh Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the ...

, Task Group 77.2. Many of the ships had come from

Naval Base Ulithi Naval Base Ulithi was a major United States Navy base at the Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea during World War II. The base was built to support the island-hopping Pacific Wa ...

staging. A few ships were damaged in Lingayen Gulf by small maru-ni boats, that had depth charges. LST-925 and LST-1028 were damaged by a maru-ni boats (US calling them torpedo boats at the time) from Sual. The USS Philip (DD-498),

USS Robinson (DD-562) USS ''Robinson'' (DD-562), a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Captain Isaiah Robinson (died c. 1781), who served in the Continental Navy. Operational history ''Robinson'' was laid down on 12 August 1942 by the S ...

and USS Leutze were able to stop maru-ni boats before they attacked, 45 maru-ni boats were lost in total. Japan landed and took Lingayen on December 22, 1941. US and Filipino Troops at Lingayen, retreated to

Bataan Bataan (, , , ; ) , officially the Province of Bataan, is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entire Bataan Peninsula ...

, most becoming

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

and part of the

Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March was the Death march, forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of around 72,000 to 78,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war (POWs) from the municipalities of Bagac and Mariveles on the Bataan Peninsula to Camp ...

in April 1942.William L. O'Neill, ''A Democracy at War: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in World War II'', p 115

Post war

With two large Naval Bases on Luzon:

Naval Base Manila file:CoastalPlanManila.jpg, Map of Manila, Naval Base Manila is at Cavite in Manila Bay Naval Base Manila, Naval Air Base Manila was a major United States Navy base south of the Manila, City of Manila, on Luzon, Luzon Island in the Philippine ...

and Naval Base Subic Bay, Naval Base Lingayen was closed after the war. *Veterans Memorial Park is a park in the city of Lingayen, Pangasinan at . *3" Naval Gun and a Twin 40mm Anti-aircraft gun are displayed at Lingayen Capital Compound at .Twin 40mm Anti-aircraft gun
'pacificwrecks.com'' *San Fernando, La Union World War 2 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at .

Gallery

File:705Sevilla, San Fernando, La Union 46.jpg, Monument to the Unknown Soldier San Fernando, La Union File:705Sevilla, San Fernando, La Union 64.jpg, Monument to the Unknown Soldier San Fernando, La Union Ph locator pangasinan lingayen.png, Map Lingayen Ph locator la union san fernando.png, Map San Fernando, La Union Philippine Island - Luzon Island - NARA - 68157043.jpg, San Fernando, La Union in 1940 Wallace Air Station, Philippines in 1988.JPEG, Wallace Air Station, Philippines Wallace Air Station, Philippines c1981.jpg, Wallace Air Station Bacsil Ridge historical marker.jpg, Bacsil Ridge historical marker A pronouncing gazetteer and geographical dictionary of the Philippine Islands, United States of America with maps, charts and illustrations (1902) (14775376721).jpg, San Fernando, La Union Harbor map Coast Guard landing barges at Lingayen Gulf crop.jpg, US Coast Guard landing barges at Lingayen Gulf USS Sarasota at Lingayen Gulf, P.I., prob. 1-8-1945.png, USS Sarasota at Lingayen Gulf in 1945.png Lingayengulfmap.png, Map Lingayen Gulf Kamikaze attacks USS Columbia (CL-56) in Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 (NH 79449).jpg, Kamikaze attacks USS Columbia (CL-56) in Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 USS Louisville (CA-28) is hit by a kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 (80-G-363217).jpg,

USS Louisville (CA-28) USS ''Louisville'' (CL/CA-28), a , was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. She was active throughout the Pacific War. USS ''Louisville'' was the first large warship to be built in a drydoc ...

is hit by a kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 US warships entering Lingayen Gulf 1945.jpg, leading and to Lingayen. File:Cve79a.jpg, USS Ommaney Bay attacked by kamikaze 3 January 1945 File:Lingayen gulf 1945.jpg, Map Lingayen landing 1945

External links

youtube Seabees of World War IIyoutube Lingayen

References

{{USWWII Military installations of the Philippines Closed installations of the United States Navy

Naval Base Lingayen LST-917 and other LST ships unloading at Lingayen Gulf January 1945 Naval Base Lingayen was a United States Navy base built during World War II at Lingayen Gulf on the northwestern Island of Luzon in the Philippines. The base was founded af ...

1945 in the Philippines