Don Bowen
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Joined: 7/13/2000
From: Georgetown, Texas, USA
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The South West Pacific Area (SWPA) Fleet was formed by the United States Army in 1942. Note that the U.S. Army operated a very large number of vessels during World War II - transports, supply and accommodation ships, local mine planters, and a vast fleet of small craft. They were operated by the Quartermaster Service, Transportation Corps, Corps of Engineers, Coast Artillery Corps, Signal Corps, and the Army Air Forces.
These ships were either:
Army owned - the larger ones known as U.S. Army Transports and carrying the USAT designation
chartered - civilian ships hired, sometimes complete with crews, for extended periods
allocated - Primarily foreign ships and new construction allocated to the army by the War Shipping Administration.
These ships had civilian crews but U.S. (and, in SWPA, Australian) army personnel served aboard many of them as gun crews, radiomen, or other specialists. In some cases the original civilian crews refused to serve in combat areas and were replaced by locally acquired crews – Australian and other merchant seamen and some military personnel. The SWPA fleet gave excellent service, both in coastal transport along the Australian Coast and in combat zones in New Guinea. Particularly noteworthy was the service of the KPM ships.
The SWPA operated two distinct fleets:
The Permanent fleet consisted of larger, ocean-going vessels that were either assigned to SWPA or simply retained after they had delivered their cargos (to the resentment of their crews and the consternation of logistics planners who counted on the ships to carry other cargos). These ships were assigned local designation numbers beginning with “X”. The permanent fleet included:
130 U.S. Flagged vessels (plus 6 or 7 more that served temporarily and did not receive X numbers)
21 Dutch KPM ships (Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij shipping company from the Netherlands East Indies)
5 other Dutch ships (plus 1 or 2 temporary)
5 Philippine
4 Chinese
5 Norwegian
1 Italian
1 Danish
2 British
The “Catbird Flotilla” consisted of smaller craft, locally acquired, and used extensively in New Guinea. They were assigned identification numbers beginning with "S". In July, 1942 the Catbird Flotilla consisted of:
19 Trawlers
4 Harbor Boats
4 Steamers
2 Speed Boats
2 Ketches
2 Motorships
1 Cabin Cruiser
1 Schooner
1 Powered Lighter
Australian vessels known to have been operated by the U.S. Army include:
2 small freighters (used as repair ships)
2 passenger steamers converted to barracks ships
24 motor freighters
22 steam freighters
3 schooners
16 ketches
51 trawlers
2 luggers
2 powered scows
19 tugs and towboats.
Primary Source: U.S. Army Ships and Watercraft of World War II ISBN 0-87021-766-6
SWPA Small Ship S-82 in her daytime hideout, 1943 (Australian War Museum 055775)
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USA owed OZ money at war's end. - 
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