One of the great logistical achievements of the Pacific war was the Navy’s ability to repair and return damaged warships to action thousands of miles from the nearest permanent shipyard. Floating dry docks — the “cradles” of the title — made this possible. These massive mobile structures could be towed to forward bases, ballasted down, flooded to admit a damaged ship, and then pumped out to lift the vessel clear of the water for hull repairs, propeller replacement, and bottom work. By April 1945, as the Pacific Fleet was staging for the invasion of Okinawa, the system of floating dry docks and advanced base ship repair units had become indispensable to sustained fleet operations far from the continental United States. This two-page feature from the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin describes how those cradles worked and what they meant to the fighting fleet.
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