NAVY DEPARTMENT IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS AND RADIO |
OCTOBER 2, 1945 |
NAVY PLANS RETURN OF ONE MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND PERSONNEL FROM PACIFIC IN NEXT ELEVEN MONTHS
The Navy must bring approximately 1,800,000 of its officers and men including Marines and Coast Guard, home from the Pacific theater in the 11 months between October 1, 1945 and September 1, 1946.
When the withdrawal is completed, only about 200,000 Navy and Marine officers and men will be on duty in the Pacific.
The actual number now on duty in the Pacific is about 1,800,000. Another 200,000 will be sent out before next July 1, as replacements, making a total of 2,000,000 officers and men who will have been on duty in the Pacific sometime between October 1, 1945, and September 1, 1946.
To pull this total of 2,000,000 down to the 200,000 which will be the strength on September 1, 1946, will require 1,800,000 passages home from the Pacific.
The Army will have a personnel movement of slightly smaller dimensions out of the Pacific so that the total number of men to be embarked for the United States from Pacific points between October 1, 1945, to September 1, 1946, will be about 3,400,000.
U.S. Navy ships will bring home over 2,000,000 men, more than half the total of 3,400,000. More than 300 Naval vessels, capable of taking aboard about 500,000 men at one time, will see service in the homecoming fleet. In the month of peak traffic--which is expected to be January, 1946--Navy ships will bring home about 290,000 of the month's estimated total, 455,000.
Of all Navy ships, assault transports will carry the biggest load, bringing home about 800,000 men. They will share with Navy and WSA troopships the roll of work horses in the repatriation. Fleet units other than "baby flattops" will bring home more than 900,000 and the "baby flattops" alone will bring back another hundred thousand. About 75,000 will be brought back in hospital ships, and a few thousand will return in landing craft.
The Navy and Army air lines--NATS and ATC--will fly about 100,000 officers and men back from the Pacific between October 1, 1945, and June 1, 1946.
28 Nov 2006