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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

"Magic Carpet" Press Release

STATEMENT BY
REAR ADMIRAL FLANIGAN
ASSISTANT CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS FOR TRANSPORTATION
DELIVERED BEFORE THE SENATE MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
ON 18 OCTOBER 1945

As of 1 October the Joint Army and Navy transportation program to June 50, 1946, calls for the return of the following number of personnel from the three major theaters:

From the Pacific       1,750,000 Navy, Coast Guard and Marine;
1,500,000 Army.
From India       244,000 Army; 3,000 Navy.
From Europe       1,839,000 Army and 16,000 Navy.
For a total of       5,352,000.

Of this total, approximately 520,000 Naval personnel manning combatant ships will return in their own ships. The remaining 4,832,000 must be returned as passengers.

At the present time our transport fleet in the Atlantic consists of 53 troopships, 65 converted Victories, 200 converted Liberties, 6 hospital transports, 1 large aircraft carrier and the Queen Mary having a total passenger capacity of 409,473. In the Indian service we now have 22 troopships with a passenger capacity of 75,469. In the Pacific we have 162 troopships, 1 large aircraft carrier, 35 escort carriers, 100 assault transports, 9 hospital transports and 5 miscellaneous ships with a total passenger capacity of 523,067.

In addition to these ships, all combatant ships returning to this country carry home passengers; for example, last month they brought 17,494 passengers from the Pacific and the two Task Forces which have just arrived from the Pacific on the East and West Coast carried nearly 50,000 passengers. Army and Navy commanders in the forward Pacific area have orders to utilize every available space on returning cargo vessels and some cargo vessels are now being converted in the forward areas to carry as many as 500 passengers .

Since the first of September, 466 cargo vessels and tankers which was 85 per cent of those returning to the West Coast from the forward Pacific areas brought 9,788 passengers, or an average of 21 per ship. Now that the Armed Guard crews have been removed from vessels leaving the U. S., vacated guard quarters will be filled on every returning vessel.

By 15 November we will have 3 troopships less in the Atlantic but 3 large aircraft carriers, 3 cruiser aircraft carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 22 converted Victories will be adding a net gain of 61,569 in passenger capacity. By the same time we will have increased the Indian service by the 3 troopships taken from the Atlantic, with a gain of 4,513.


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Likewise, in the Pacific, we will add at an early date 6 large aircraft carriers, 4 cruiser aircraft carriers, 6 escort carriers, , 6 battleships, 20 light cruisers, 103 APA, 2 hospital transports and 17 miscellaneous ships for a gain of 195,700.

This will give us a transport fleet with a passenger capacity o. 471,042 in the Atlantic, 79,982 in the Indian service and 718,767 in the Pacific, or 1,269,791. Fifty-five per cent of the Fleet calculated by passenger capacity is manned by U. S. Navy crews. 38 per cent by the War Shipping Administration, 4 per cent by the Army and 3 per cent by foreign nations. The excess passenger capacity in the Pacific over that in the Atlantic is not real. Greater distances and other factors make our monthly lift approximately equal in each ocean.

Between R-Day, May 12 and October 12, we returned by ship from Europe to the U. S. 1,509,405 passengers, while an additional 173,339 came home by air. From September 1, to October 12, we returned by ship from India 9,328 and from the Pacific 245,930.

We will lift from Europe by the end of January all remaining military personnel except 400,000 Army troops now scheduled for occupation, an additional 300,000 men temporarily scheduled for supply and clean-up duty, and 12,000 Navy occupational personnel. We will have lifted all personnel out of India by early in April, while in the Pacific we can lift all personnel, except the Army and Navy personnel required for occupational duty by early in June.

It must be understood, however, that we are, and will continue to be, in a tight position throughout the remainder of this year, despite the fact that we will be bringing home an average of 867,000 men every month. There will be initially more men in all three theaters who are eligible to return home than we can immediately lift. The situation is particularly acute in the Pacific where for the last three months of this year there will be considerably more men available to come home than we can carry. Therefore, there will be delays there. But beginning in January we will begin to clear up the backlog of personnel and will eliminate it by April.

In June 1946, 13 months after VE-Day, 10 months after VJ-Day, we will complete the job of transporting home all except the occupational forces. It took over 3 years to transport them overseas. After the last war we brought home 2,000,000 in a little more than a year. This time we will bring home to the U. S. within the same period more than 31/2 times as many--the truly colossal number of over 7,000,000.


28 Nov 2006