AMERICAN SAMOA
Blunts Battery |
Breakers Battery |
Fita Fita Barracks |
Matautu Ridge Battery
Poloa Beach |
Tutuila Naval Station
AMERICAN SAMOA VISITORS BUREAU
NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICAN SAMOA
¤ HARBOR DEFENSES of
PAGO PAGO 
¤ Blunts Battery
(1941 - 1944), Blunts Point, near Utulei
Two guns are still located here in situ on Matautu Ridge, the upper gun 50 feet above the lower gun. The lower gun is restored and is currently a public park, and the upper gun is private property. Both guns are 6-inch naval guns in concrete emplacements that were manned by the U.S. Marines. Blunts Point is also known as Tulutulu Point. Tours can be arranged by the National Park Service.
Nearby was Matautu Ridge Battery (1917-19), which consisted of two guns (a 3-pounder and a 3-inch field gun), and was manned by U.S. naval personnel from Tutuila Naval Station during World War I. Exact site undetermined. Two German naval vessels were seized in Pago Pago Harbor when the U.S. entered WWI in 1917. There was no further action in Samoa during the remainder of the war.
¤ Breakers Battery
(1941 - 1944), Breakers Point, near Laulifou
Two 6-inch naval guns are still located here in situ on Papatele Ridge, on the opposite side of the harbor entrance from Blunts Battery, and were manned by the U.S. Marines. The site is private property.
¤ ALSO: Other island defenses included eleven 3-inch naval AMTB and AA gun emplacements. Three concrete AA emplacements are still extant on Utulei Ridge. Two AA emplacements were located on Togo Togo Ridge. About 100 concrete machine-gun pillboxes were located along the beaches, about 50 of them are still extant. Also, eight 155mm guns, eight 5-inch naval AA guns, sixteen 40mm AA guns, and twelve 75mm howitzers were located on the island at various sites.
The U.S. Marine 7th Defense Battalion arrived in March 1941 to establish harbor and anti-aircraft defenses. Pago Pago Harbor was shelled by a Japanese submarine on January 11, 1942, just days before the U.S. Marine 2nd Defense Battalion arrived, along with other units of the Marine 2nd Brigade, as reinforcements for the island garrison. The American coast defense guns could not obtain a clear and direct field of fire to the submarine due to Fatifati Mountain, and therefore could not fire back. The 1st Samoan Battalion (Reserve) was also formed for harbor defense at this time. The island's pre-war naval airfield was expanded with two runways and completed in March 1942 (now the present-day airport). Another airfield was built at Leone in September 1943 (abandoned since 1945). The 7th Defense Battalion transferred to Western Samoa in May 1942. The Samoan Harbor Defense Group was then formed in June 1942. The division-level command "Defense Force, Samoan Group" was established in April 1942, disbanded in December 1943, which was also responsible for U.S. Army and Marine defense operations in Western Samoa, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and the Ellice Islands. The U.S. Army left the Samoas by February 1944.
Special thanks to Al Grobmeier of the Coast Defense Study Group, and to John Enright of the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, for providing info on the Pago Pago defenses.
Tutuila Naval Station
(Tutuila Naval Base Historic District)
(1900 - 1951), Fagatogo
Originally established as a coaling station for the American Navy's Pacific Fleet. By World War II there were over 100 buildings constructed. There was very little action here during the war. The base was closed in 1951 when the Navy left and transferred executive control of the island to the U.S. Interior Department. There are only fourteen original structures left remaining today within the Navy Base Historic District. The old naval commissary (Bldg. 43) (1919) is now the Jean P. Haydon Museum (since 1971). The Fita Fita Barracks (1908), built for the Samoa Fita Fita Guard, is now used by the local Department of Public Safety. A concrete machine-gun pillbox is located nearby at Utulei Beach Park.
Poloa Beach Defenses
(1942 - 1945), Poloa
Three concrete observation posts still remain in situ at Poloa Beach on the western side of the island. Private property.
NOTE: The eastern half of the Samoan Islands group has been a U.S. Territory since 1900. The Samoan Islands were jointly administered by Germany, Great Britain, and the United States between 1889 - 1899.
Pacific Wrecks.com
Rose Atoll, less than three sq. miles in total area, and about 170 miles east of Tutuila, is uninhabited and had no military use. A Naval Defense Sea Area was declared around the atoll in February 1941, but defenses were never implemented. Declared a National Wildlife Refuge in 1973. Public access is allowed only by Special Use Permit.
Swains Island (also known as Quiros Island, Gente Hermosa Island, or Jennings Island), originally claimed by the United States in 1856, was formally annexed in 1925 from the British colony Gilbert and Ellice Islands (present-day Tokelau). (GPS 11° 03' 20" S 171° 04' 40" W) No known military use. Abandoned since 2008.
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