| WW II Archaeological Discovery!!! Part II |
Myself and Jennings Bunn, Naval Base Guam's
Cultural Resources Manager and unofficial base
historian. July 11, 2004. Behind us is the LVT-4.
Where the LVT-4 is buried is very significant. It's
sitting on what was the original shoreline. In 1944,
almost as soon as Guam was relatively secured,
the Sea Bees began filling this swampy shore in to
reclaim the land and build X-Ray pier, which is still
in use today (you can see ships tied up to it in the
above photo showing the LVT-4 in relation to the
bulldozer).
Jennings and I are speculating that this Water
Buffalo most likely came up in the harbor as we
pushed the Japanese back as we took the
penninsula the base sits on. For whatever reason
it probably conked out right here, and was just
abandoned after the .30 rifles were removed
(nothing else seems to have been salvaged but the
guns).
Then, when the Sea Bees started filling in the
shore, they just buried the thing, using it as part of
the landfill. After all, during the tense period of
late 1944, there were so many of these craft
around that there was little need to expend much
effort on this one. See that road behind us (X-Ray
Pier is out of the photo to the left)--that road's
been there for near-on a half century. 60 years of
being there, but this LVT-4 was hidded under the
dirt and by the typical thick jungle that grows up
on Guam (such as you can see behind the fence in
the background).
Cultural Resources Manager and unofficial base
historian. July 11, 2004. Behind us is the LVT-4.
Where the LVT-4 is buried is very significant. It's
sitting on what was the original shoreline. In 1944,
almost as soon as Guam was relatively secured,
the Sea Bees began filling this swampy shore in to
reclaim the land and build X-Ray pier, which is still
in use today (you can see ships tied up to it in the
above photo showing the LVT-4 in relation to the
bulldozer).
Jennings and I are speculating that this Water
Buffalo most likely came up in the harbor as we
pushed the Japanese back as we took the
penninsula the base sits on. For whatever reason
it probably conked out right here, and was just
abandoned after the .30 rifles were removed
(nothing else seems to have been salvaged but the
guns).
Then, when the Sea Bees started filling in the
shore, they just buried the thing, using it as part of
the landfill. After all, during the tense period of
late 1944, there were so many of these craft
around that there was little need to expend much
effort on this one. See that road behind us (X-Ray
Pier is out of the photo to the left)--that road's
been there for near-on a half century. 60 years of
being there, but this LVT-4 was hidded under the
dirt and by the typical thick jungle that grows up
on Guam (such as you can see behind the fence in
the background).
| July 18, 2004: What we initially though to be an entire Sea Bee bulldozer buried near the LVT-4 turned out to be close, but not quite the whole banana. Once the construction crew had unearthed the bulldozer, we found it was just the blade and pylons, not an entire unit. Because this whole area was filled in 1944-1945 for the construction of X-Ray pier on Naval Base Guam, we can safely conclude that this bulldozer blade was a Sea Bee piece of gear during the Battle of Guam in late 1944. |
(Left) The bulldozer blade in
place after being dug out.
The red arros is pointing at
the open hatch of the LVT-4
in the background. These
photos were shot during the
afternoon of 18 July 2004.
place after being dug out.
The red arros is pointing at
the open hatch of the LVT-4
in the background. These
photos were shot during the
afternoon of 18 July 2004.
