Operation Ivory Soap

rdf:langString Operation Ivory Soap

rdf:langString Operation Ivory Soap was a classified United States military project to provide forward theatre support for aircraft repair and maintenance during World War II in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. Six Liberty ships were converted into floating shops to repair aircraft. They were designated Aircraft Repair Units (Floating). The Liberty ships were retrofitted to repair B-29 bombers. Eighteen smaller 187 feet (57 m) long auxiliary vessels were designated as Aircraft Maintenance Units. The smaller vessels were intended to repair fighter aircraft like the P-51 Mustang, Lockheed P-38, Sikorsky R-4 helicopters, and amphibious vehicles. The island-hopping strategy employed in campaigns like Operation Cartwheel necessitated more flexibility to support aircraft operations at rapidly shifting, far-flung island airfields. Once an island was taken it was used as a forward airfield for aircraft returning from long range missions where they were repaired, rearmed, and made ready for the next vital mission. The Army came up with an idea in 1944 for forward-based, mobile air depots to repair and maintain American bombers and fighters. The idea was then advanced to Washington, where it was reviewed and approved by the commander of the Army Air Corps, Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. It was then approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Brookley Army Air Field near Mobile, Alabama had become the major Army Air Forces supply base for the Air Materiel Command in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean. The military decided to take advantage of Brookley's large, skilled workforce for the top-secret project. It selected Colonel Matthew Thompson, a former member of the British Royal Navy, to lead the training effort. He took over the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama and in less than five months trained about 5000 Army soldiers in the skills necessary to repair aircraft and to operate aboard a ship. Meanwhile, the ships were fitted with all of the shops and materials necessary to support and repair aircraft. In October 1944 the First Aircraft Repair Unit deployed and by the following February, all six vessels traveled through the Panama Canal to the Pacific. The ships were manned by members of the Army, Navy and Merchant Marines. They operated near Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, Iwo Jima, Luzon, Guam, and Okinawa. The ship's early model Sikorsky R-4 helicopters were used to transport mechanics, parts, and later to ferry wounded soldiers to field hospitals. The helicopters were instrumental in saving dozens of lives. The project was declassified in 1953.