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Luganville on the Island of Espiritu Santo

       Now, a dozen yachts from half a dozen countries sail in and out of the Luganville Harbor each week. Freighters stop here twice a week with a few supplies. Air Vanuatu runs two flights per week. Luganville Harbor in Espiritu Santo is much quieter now. However, between 1942-1945 this harbor was the second largest United States military installation in the Pacific, ranking behind Hawaii.          

      In early 1942 Japanese forces moved south toward Australia and New Zealand, taking Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the Gilberts, and the Solomon's. After the Battle of the Coral Sea, the their string of victories stopped.  The United Sates established bases, first in New Caledonia, and then in more northern islands, the New Hebrides from which to mount a counteroffensive. The Luganville Harbor and the surrounding area housed up to 100 ships, 650 aircraft, three bomber landing fields, two fighter airfields, three dry docks, one large enough to float a battleship, four hospitals, 43 movie houses, and up to 47,000 military personnel and another 15,000 civilian personnel. More than 500,000 military personnel moved through here, mostly Americans, but also New Zealanders and Australians. Many Army, Navy, and Marine Corps troops moved saw Luganville before heading off to fight in other places in the South Pacific. Fighters and bombers from these airfields made runs back and forth to the Solomon Islands, 650 miles away. These bases provided the staging area for the bloody battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the first US landing on Japanese held territory in WWll.

     The jungle has not claimed as much of the remnants of war as planners hoped. Concrete buildings still stand and Luganville has wide paved streets, crowned with good drainage. Earthen ammunition bunkers outside of Luganville support green tropical plants and are now used to store copra. But there is a quiet feeling, almost a ghost town feeling in Luganville                                                         

War Memorial Tourist attractions: Diving on Million Dollar Point and the SS President Coolidge

            At war’s end the United States military had a problem: what to do with the massive amount of surplus stores and equipment in the area. Although the information that we have is far from clear, the military apparently negotiated with the French plantation owners and with the New Hebrides government. Deadlines came and passed and the prospective buyers believed the Americans would leave the equipment in any event, so they declined to buy it at 8 cents on the dollar. To the surprise of many, one day and for many days Americans drove tanks, jeeps, trucks, cranes, and other rolling stock and materials into the sea. The area today is referred to as Million Dollar Point, although at one time its value clearly exceeded that. Now the sea off the point provides divers and snorkelers with entertainment as they try to determine whether General Motors or Chrysler made a certain truck or tank, and to watch as the sea slowly reclaims the metal.

The beach at Million Dollar Point at low tide

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