| Lifeline for Liberty
Casco Bay’s Role in the Liberation of Europe During WWII
Joel W. Eastman
When the Great War broke out in August 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the United States neutral, and urged American citizens to remain neutral in “thought and deed.” Wilson immediately began an effort to mediate an end to the conflict, but neither side would commit. When German resumed unrestricted submarine warfare against U.S. neutral shipping, President Wilson called for a declaration of war and released his 14 point proposals for preventing another world war, the most important of which was creating a League of Nations.
The U.S. turned the tide against the Central Powers, winning the war for the Allies. Wilson then sailed for France to represent the United States at the Versailles Conference and was successful in winning approval of a League of Nations. Republican isolationists in the U.S. Senate were able to block approval of the treaty, and so the U.S. did not join the league. However, the U.S. sent an observer and supported the actions of the international body to attempt to halt the expansion of Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected during the crisis of the Great Depression in 1932, supported the actions of the league, but also issued his own criticism of and diplomatic action against fascist expansion, calling for the “quarantine” of aggressors. Despite all efforts to prevent another world war, Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Great Britain and France, which had promised to defend Poland, declared war on Germany, and World War II began.
At that time the overwhelming majority of Americans opposed involvement, believing that the United States had been duped into entering World War I, and that the Versailles treaty had not changed a corrupt, decadent Europe. Congress passed a series of acts attempting to prevent the US from being dragged into another world war. However, President Roosevelt believed that the United States would eventually become a fascist target, and so he began a buildup of U.S. defenses.
Roosevelt adopted an "Atlantic first" strategy, believing that Germany was a greater threat than Japan. In September 1939, the president created a naval "neutrality patrol," to protect the western hemisphere from German fifth columnists. He then began building up naval forces in the Atlantic, shifting vessels from the Pacific, and reconstituted an Atlantic Fleet.
During the next two years, Roosevelt led a reluctant American public, set-by-step toward involvement in a war with Germany. He allowed sales to the Allies as long as they were paid for in cash and carried on Allied vessels. By executive order he traded 50 destroyers with Britain for leases on Naval bases in the western hemisphere. He accepted responsibility for the defense, first of Greenland and then of Iceland, pushing the boundaries of his self-proclaimed hemispheric defense zone. He convinced Congress to double of the size of the navy, order the first a peacetime draft, and approve “Lend Lease,” the loaning of war materials to the Allies. The President turned the "neutrality patrol" into the convoying of ships halfway across the Atlantic to Iceland, to ease the burden on embattled Britain after the fall of France.
Britain was losing ships to German submarines faster that it could build them, so it contracted with two American firms to build cargo ships. On December 20, 1940, construction began on the Todd-Bath Shipyard at Spring Point in South Portland with a contract to build 30 cargo ships for Britain, the first of which was launched in March 1942, and the last in November 1942. Roosevelt realized that the United States would also need hundreds of cargo ships to aid Britain, so in April 1941, the U.S. Maritime Commission built a second yard in South Portland to build Liberty ships, the first of which was launched in June 1942. In the fall of 1942 the two yards merged and built a total of 236 Liberty ships, 10 percent of those built during the war.
To support Roosevelt’s effort to maintain a lifeline to Britain, the navy needed new North Atlantic bases. On January 24, 1941, Casco Bay was designated a Fleet Anchorage to serve the Neutrality Patrol. It was at this point that Casco Bay was selected as an "inner base" for destroyers, to replace Narraganset Bay, which was too far from convoy routes. Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that Casco Bay "afforded an excellent protected anchorage of wide extent, adjacent to deep water where gunnery practice and maneuvers could be held, and near the city of Portland as a railhead for supplies and recreation center."
Argentia, Newfoundland, given to the U.S. by Great Britain, was selected as an "advanced base," and opened July 15, 1941. The U.S. naval base in Argentia was ranked first in tactical importance of all U.S. naval bases, and Casco Bay was second, but the most important in the continental U.S. During summer of 1941, destroyers and destroyer escorts began arriving in Casco Bay from their former home port of Newport, Rhode Island.
From August 10th through the 15th, 1941, Roosevelt met secretly with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Argentia, for what came to be called the Atlantic Conference, and FDR announced there that the US Navy would begin convoying ships to Iceland. On September 1, 1941, as promised, FDR ordered the convoying, and problems began almost immediately. On September 5, the destroyer USS Greer was attacked by a submarine, and it fired back, becoming the first US ship to attack an enemy in World War II.
On September 11, as a result of Greer incident, Roosevelt issued a "shoot on sight" order, which placed the United States in an undeclared naval war with Germany. On October 17, the USS Kearney was torpedoed by submarine, and on October 30, the Reuben James, which had left Casco Bay on September 5 for convoy duty, was torpedoed and sunk by a submarine; its magazine exploded, killing 115 men, the first American casualties of the war.
On September 12, the USS Denebola arrived in Casco Bay, a destroyer tender and the flagship of the Commander of Destroyers Atlantic. The Denebola remained in the bay until April 1945, maintaining and repairing the destroyer fleet. In October, anti-submarine nets had been approved for Hussey Sound, the Navy entrance to the Fleet Anchorage. At this time, a Gallup poll revealed that 63% of the American public opposed going to war with Germany. Ironically, it was Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor that united Americans in support of going to war, and then Germany declared war on the United States.
On the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, orders were issued to plant mines in main channel and Hussey Sound; to sweep the channels daily for enemy mines; to install anti-submarine nets and anti-torpedo boat obstacles; to lay cables for Magnetic Loop Stations built at Two Lights and Bailey Island; and to install sonobuoys and hydro phones in the channels into the harbor.
A joint Army-Navy Harbor Entrance Control Post was established at Fort Williams with the responsibility of controlling all the ship traffic in and out of the harbor. The Lightship Nantucket was assigned to Portland as an examination vessel stationed off Cape Elizabeth, to meet incoming vessels. Patrols were run outside of and inside of the harbor, and strict regulations issued about the fleet anchorage.
One of the first concerns was fuel for the fleet. On December 30, 1941, a Fuel Annex was approved for Long Island, to consist of three underground tanks, and piers, and other support facilities. The Navy condemned and purchased a huge parcel of land for the annex. In 1942, eight additional fuel tanks and four diesel tanks were begun. The Fuel Annex was completed in June 1943.
On the eve of the Normandy Invasion in June 1944, hundreds of ships passed through Casco Bay on their way to Europe. During the week of August 12, 1944, 539 vessels entered and 558 left Portland. Seventy-nine ships that visited Casco Bay during World War II participated in the Invasion of Normandy and the Invasion of Cherbourg — Battleships Arkansas, Nevada, and Texas, Cruisers Cincinnati, Augusta, Tuscaloosa, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Quincy, fifty-five Destroyers, one Command Ship, USS Biscayne, five Destroyer Escorts, six Minesweepers, one Patrol Craft, one Coast Guard Cutter, USCG Duane, and one Fleet Tug. A number participated in both. Three ships were sunk by mines during the invasions.
On June 6, 1944, the U.S. Navy covered the landing of Allied troops on the beaches of Normany, and Liberty ships unloaded troops and tons of supplies to support the invasion. It took until August for Allied troops to break through German defenses around Normandy, but then the invasion forces raced across France, reaching Paris August 26, Brussels on September 3, and the German border on October 16, at the same time that Soviet forces were approaching Warsaw, Poland. In December, Germany launched an offensive through the Ardennes, but it was thrown back, and Allied forces were across the Rhine River in Germany by March 25, 1945 and the Elbe River April 19. Soviet troops besieged Berlin on April 26 and Germany surrendered May 8, 1945.
Casco Bay, the closest American harbor to Europe, had played a vital role as a lifeline for liberty, helping make possible the liberation of Europe.
home | back to top |
