Savannah and Chatham County, Georgia, in World War II

Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation's yards on the Savannah River, 1944, with Liberty ships in various stages of construction. U.S. Army Air Forces.

Savannah and Chatham County, Georgia, were busy centers of the World War II home front. In 2022 they were designated an American World War II Heritage City.

Ships and supplies

• The Savannah Shipyard on the Savannah River built Coast Guard auxiliary craft, minesweepers and Liberty ships.
• The port shipped out 1.24 million tons of war materials made by local companies and was the port of embarkation for supplies bound inland.
• Local factories produced asphalt, boxes, paper, bomb casings and tractor-trailers for the military.
• The 400-acre Savannah Quartermaster Depot distributed more than 1 million pounds of supplies a year during the war.
• The Eighth Air Force was first activated in Savannah in 1942.

Hunter Field

In 1940 the U.S. Army chose Savannah's Municipal Airport, Hunter Field, as a light bomber training base, and several bomber groups moved there. After the United States entered the war it also trained ground support squadrons, medium and dive bomber groups, and fighter groups. From 1941 to 1943 its population grew to 10,000, and it expanded from 900 to about 3,000 acres, with six new cantonments of housing and several tent camps.

The flight line at Hunter Field, 1942–1945. U.S. Army.

Guarding the coast

With so much shipbuilding and shipping along the river and coast, civil defense mattered. The U.S. Coast Guard protected coastal and river facilities with help from local civil defense volunteers, and civilian groups and the Georgia State Guard watched for threats from sea and air.

Remembering

Markers and memorials across Savannah and Chatham County recall the war years:

• a historic marker at the McKelvey-Powell Building, a USO facility for African American servicemen;
• a marker at Hunter Army Airfield/Fort Stewart naming it the "Birthplace of the Eighth Air Force";
• a monument to a Rescue Boat Station on the coast and Fort Screven on Tybee Island, listed on the National Register of Historic Places;
• the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

About the program

The American World War II Heritage City program, created by the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 and coordinated by the National Park Service, recognizes places for their wartime contributions and their work to preserve and remember the home front.

Sources

• National Park Service: "Savannah & Chatham County, Georgia," American World War II Heritage City series.