Seventy Years Ago: Noumea Harbor

September 21, 1942: The troop ships carrying the 27th Air Depot Group to the South Pacific steamed around the point and entered the harbor of Noumea, New Caledonia.

The ships had left San Francisco on September first and crossed the equator ten days earlier, on September 11. The embarked Army Air Forces personnel outnumbered the sailors aboard, so the crossing-the-line ceremony was fairly perfunctory. Even so, King Neptune made his anticipated appearance on each ship.

Master Sergeant Cox, untroubled by motion sickness, whiled away the hours playing cards and rolling dice. It had been a profitable passage. When not involved in games of chance, he stood watch at the guns mounted on the weather deck, so he was in position to see what transpired.

As the ships headed into harbor, he saw buildings burning, fire fighters trying to control the flames. Other ships already at anchor blinked messages at the new arrivals with signal lights. Instead of easing into assigned amchorages, the new arrivals milled about and headed back out to sea.

"Jap air raid," the messages said. "Don't anchor here. They are coming back."

The formation headed back out to sea, looking for the Australian escort ship they had been promised. Sailors and soldiers crowded the rails searching for the ship. "There she is!" One soldier cried out. "Where?"

White caps made it hard to see. They were expecting a destroyer or, perhaps a cruiser. The soldier kept insisting he saw it.

The long Pacific rollers swept by from astern, lifting the troop ships. From the top of the swell, Sergeant Cox suddenly spotted something. It looked like a broomstick popping up out of the ocean and then disappearing below the horizon.

Finally the ship got closer to the "broomstick" and a small hull popped up above the horizon.

Their escort was an Australian patrol vessel. It looked no bigger than a harbor patrol boat. But it had a gun and that was their escort, protecting them from the enemy until arrival at Brisbane five days later.