Exploring Local History: A review of World War II: Rhode Island by Christian McBurney, Brian L. Wall

As one of the founding thirteen colonies, Rhode Island played a very large role in both the American Revolution and the constitutional debates of the early republic. Tragically, after this early period in American history, Rhode Island’s history is less well known, although this is quickly changing through the work of local historians and authors. A newly published chronicle of World War II activities in the state by a coalition of well-known Rhode Island historians illuminates the large contribution that Rhode Island made to the war effort, as well as truly fascinating incidents that occurred in or near this little state with an outsized history.

The setup of the book is logical with different authors contributing chapters that correspond with their areas of expertise. Overall, the book balances colorful short stories, firsthand accounts of events, detailed descriptions of the activities and timelines of different military installations in the state, in order to create a full picture of the wartime occurrences around Narraganset Bay. The chaotic early days of war saw the small state gearing up to contribute to the war effort. Some very interesting tidbits constitute these early chapters. For example, “…an air raid alert was issued to military bases warning that ‘enemy planes’ were ‘reported one hour from New York’. Panic spread in the state…Newport’s schoolchildren were sent home, off-duty policemen and firemen were called in…” (15). Although of course Rhode Island saw no real fighting, the authors bring the reader into the tense mood that had spread over the state during the frightening early years of the war, when the Allies seemingly were on the retreat. Readers are guided through the establishment of the major military fortifications and bases within the state.

Something that has remained quite well known to this day in Rhode Island is the legacy of the Quonset Point Naval Air station. Particularly striking was the immense scale of the project. It is difficult for 21st century readers to fully grasp just how large the scope of this construction was when put in the context of that time period. Even today, there are not infrastructure projects in the state, in development currently, that match this scale of nearly three quarters of a century ago. The authors inauspiciously note the size of the development: “A total of 12 million cubic yards of mud filled 400 acres of land behind two miles of bulkheads driven into the bay and turned a triangular landmass that jutted into the bay into a square one” (33). The author of this section also does a capable job pulling primary sources together in order to create a cohesive image of the massive project that became Quonset Point. Interestingly, many of the American aviators who flew in the North African Campaign trained at this base here in Rhode Island. Also, the vaunted PBY Catalinas, which were the nemesis of German U-Boats in the North Atlantic, trained and operated out of Quonset Point. Notably, former U.S. president Richard Nixon served at Quonset Point, where he received his naval training. The common thread here is that Rhode Island essentially served as a central node in the giant web of military installations, wherein new recruits, machines and military doctrine could be integrated through a process of rigorous training before being sent to either the Atlantic or Pacific theaters. This excellent training may have proved to be a crucial difference on the battlefield, since the Axis lacked for well-trained pilots in the later years of the Second World War.

Of course, it was not just through the Quonset Point Naval Air Station that Rhode Island and its proud inhabitants contributed to the war effort. Indeed, as becomes clear throughout the course of the book, proportionally to the amount of people in the state and its geographical size, Rhode Island contributed an immense amount to the provisioning and maintenance of the US Armed Forces in this period. Battleships and aircraft carriers are regularly described sailing in and out of the mouth of Narragansett Bay, in a scene almost unimaginable today. Aquidneck Island was dotted with military installations, forming a web of different bases catering to different needs of the armed services.

North of Newport yet still on Aquidneck Island was the torpedo boat training base, where former US President John F. Kennedy received his PT training.

PT boats, which were about 100 foot long wooden hulled, speed boats, proved an integral part of the US Navy in World War II. In the Pacific Theater especially, such boats were able to hunt Japanese subs, and serve as transport vessels, going into areas at such speeds that conventional Navy destroyers could not. These small boats played a significant role in the largest naval battle of World War Two: The battle of Leyte Gulf. The heroics of the PT boats and their crews is encapsulated in the near mythical tale of PT 109. Of course, PT 109 and her crew were taken through their paces at the base- a classic story of New England maritime heroism recounted in detail within this book.

Indeed, this collaborative effort of local historians to effectively chronicle the wartime occurrences in the state of Rhode Island and the exploits of its inhabitants contributes an important segment of the state’s remarkable history. The organization of this book, in which each chapter is about a different part of the war effort, weaves in many diverse story lines (from women working in the factories to the intriguing POW camps) for a comprehensive and informative read. This book is actually very timely in that not many young Rhode Islanders are aware of Rhode Island’s massive contribution to the war effort. Readers of this book will be able to learn that RI once housed the nation’s largest PT boat center, several top secret POW camps, large amounts of munitions, and the torpedo development training center, as well as the most extensive US Navy base on the Atlantic Coast.