If you’ve never seen 1944’s The Fighting Seabees, today would be a good time to familiarize yourself with it. Starring John Wayne along with a raft of construction equipment including bulldozers, cranes, and other iron, the movie is a completely fictional account of how the US Navy “Seabees” came into existence. John Wayne plays a construction foreman who is in charge of a crew that has been building runways on small islands in the Pacific during WWII. Wayne doesn’t think that the Navy is doing enough to protect his guys and ends up taking matters into his own hands with bad results. After this incident, the Navy sees the need for “construction battalions” and the Seabees are born. While this is not how is happened in real life, it makes for a compelling WWII era script.
Below we have the entire movie for you to see. It is about an hour and a half long. The climactic final battle scene where the Japanese are advancing on the island where Wayne and his men are working is classic. If features cranes with clamshell buckets and an Allis Chalmers HD10 bulldozer wreaking havoc on the enemy and eventually serving as the savior of the men on the island as it stops and corners the bad guys.
While the historical accuracy of the Fighting Seabees is certainly questionable the film uses lots of actual war footage, tells a very compelling story, and stands as one of the most famous WWII movies ever made. Remember, the war was still going on when this came out. Relax this afternoon and press play to see John Wayne and crew build, fight, and defend their turf in this famous WWII movie!
” Natasha” my favorite. My dad was a Seabee ( 90th Battalion); he was at Pearl Harbor and finished the war on Iwo Jima. He was one semester short of a chemical engineering degree so he basically ran the sea water desalinization plant on that sulfuric hell hole of an island. When we watched “Seabees…” he just laughed…” Wayne would have spent most of is days in the brig…” Dad was the smartest, kindest man I every knew…love you! Thanks Brian.
“Natasha” my personal favorite. My dad was a Seabee (90th Battalion) serving from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima. He was a semester short of a chemical engineering degree so he basically ran the seawater desalinization plant on that fetid, sulfuric Pacific hell hole. We once watched ” The Fighting Seabees” and he just laughed ; ” Wayne would have spent most of his days in the brig” This from a man who didn’t “suffer fools” especially his officers that were 10 years his junior. Thank you Dad on your day! Thanks Brian.