Qualla: Naval Base Alexishafen https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Naval Base Alexishafen https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen Naval Base Alexishafen: Introduction https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen/ Photo credit Goldsztajn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sek Harbor shows up on few modern maps. Before the war it had been a German-era mission station called Alexishafen, eight miles north of Madang on a sheltered stretch of Bostrem Bay. In the summer of 1944 the Seabees arrived with two 3,500-ton floating drydocks, a destroyer tender, four repair ships, and enough machine shops to service the motor launches and PT boats patrolling the New Guinea coast. Seven months later it was gone, dismantled and shipped forward, the only physical trace the freshwater system the Americans handed over to the Royal Australian Navy.

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Image: Goldsztajn | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/rppe-naval-base-alexishafen-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Naval Base Alexishafen: Liberation to Construction https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen/ Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. Australian troops of the 30th Infantry Battalion took Madang and Alexishafen on 26 April 1944, finishing the long pursuit down from Shaggy Ridge. The next day an American destroyer anchored in Bostrem Bay, and the US Navy's Seventh Amphibious Force began eyeing the sheltered wate...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/rppe-naval-base-alexishafen-liberation-to-construction.mp3 0:06 2 full Naval Base Alexishafen: A Repair Fleet in a Mission Bay https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen/ Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. For a few months in 1944, Sek Harbor held one of the strangest gatherings of ships in the Pacific War: floating workshops parked in what had been a German Catholic mission harbor. The destroyer tender USS Rigel (AD-13) rode at anchor. The repair ships USS Achilles (ARL-41) and US...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/rppe-naval-base-alexishafen-a-repair-fleet-in-a-mission-bay.mp3 0:06 3 full Naval Base Alexishafen: The War Moves On https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen/ Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. The Allies liberated Hollandia on 22 April 1944, four days before Alexishafen was even taken. By the time the base finished construction, the fighting had jumped hundreds of miles west, and then jumped again to Biak and beyond. This was the logic of MacArthur's island-hopping cam...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/rppe-naval-base-alexishafen-the-war-moves-on.mp3 0:06 4 full Naval Base Alexishafen: What Remains at Sek https://qualla.com/naval-base-alexishafen/ Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. Very little physical evidence of Naval Base Alexishafen survives in any conventional sense. The drydocks were towed away. The ships returned to general duty. The Seabees went home or to the next base. What remained was absorbed back into the bush, into the older layers: the Catho...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/p/p/e/naval-base-alexishafen-wp/rppe-naval-base-alexishafen-what-remains-at-sek.mp3 0:06 5 full