Hi flyernzl
I hope you enjoy your visit to Vanuatu, we certainly did but please remember my information is 10 years old so may be out of date slightly and I was also on my honeymoon so could not devote too much time to old war stuff.
One thing I highly recommend is to purchase a copy of the book ‘The Lady and the President’ by Peter Stone, it is about the loss of the SS President Coolidge in Segond Channel, it has lots of great photos and information about Espiritu Santo during WW2. It even has a photo of some NZ Cats at their base.
There is not much to see in the vicinity of Port Vila although the northern part of Efate has many relics of the US presence. There is a small museum near the abandoned Quon Hill airfield called the Matanawora Museum, it has some basic displays and when we were there they took us on a small boat ride to 2 Corsair wrecks, one was above water but has now been recovered and is under restoration in Australia as per the link in a post above. The other was in about 3 metres of water and was in remarkable condition, it was very easy to snorkel around and I have attached a photo of me in the cockpit. We didn’t have time to explore the Quon Hill airfield even though the layout of the strip is very clear including dispersals etc..
Espiritu Santo is a different story however as it is more remote. The main town Luganville is still set out according to the US base roads and is full of Quonset huts still being used by the locals, many of the wharves are also of WW2 vintage. While there we visited the site of the hospital that the nurse from Micheners ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ was based at, the airfield at Turtle Bay used by the Black Sheep of Pappy Boyington fame, it is known locally as Fighter One, Bomber One airfield and Bomber two airfield (now the main airport) and Million Dollar Point. We didn’t go to but I understand Bomber Three is still in very good condition as well. The main aircraft things I saw on Santo was the wreck of what I think is an SBD, a lone propellor and stuff like radial engines at Million Dollar Point, apparently most of it was smelted down in the 50’s and 60’s.
I know you said you don’t dive but if you can snorkel Million Dollar Point is well worth the trip (10 mins from town), the beach is littered with equipment including cranes, truck chassis, coke bottles etc for about 300 metres – simply mind blowing. If you enter the water you can start seeing things from the first few metres to about 100 metres out, these include, trucks, jeeps, aircraft engines, generators, building supplies, fuel bowsers, bulldozers etc all piled on top of each other. Most of it is buried under coral as they pushed stuff into the sea then dumped crushed coral on top to make a ramp and so on until it stuck quite a way out – would be amazing to know what is underneath.
It is quite disappointing when I look back that didgital photography was not available then as I really skimped on photo taking – hopefully you will be able to post some here on your return.
If you have any specific questions please ask and I will do my best to answer them.
Paul
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