Many people have enjoyed the 1962-1966 television comedy McHale’s Navy about the adventures of a misfit PT Boat crew. We have been told that a real McHale actually existed in the tropical islands of the South Pacific, in Vanuatu (New Hebrides) in the Second World War. For all our searching we have not been able to verify this truth. Can anyone help us? Did a real McHale exist in the tropical islands?

In early1942, the Japanese reached the nearby Solomon Islands and the New Hebridean’s lived in real fear that their islands would be next. The Americans, however, arrived first, totally unannounced, in May 1942. Up to 100,000 soldiers were based in Santo, Vanuatu.
Only one Japanese plane bombed Vanuatu.  Bessie the cow was the only casualty, apart from the plane being shot down.
At the end of the war, the Americans disappeared as quickly as they had come, but not before Mitchner’s well known Tales of the South Pacific had been born.

This ticket was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this ticket through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “McHale’s Navy Fact Or Fiction?”

1. Movies » How are movies like home alone affecting young viewers when the complex problems have unrealistic solutions? Says:
   October 30th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

   [...] M­­cHa­le’s­ Na­v­y­ F­a­ct O­r Fi­c­t… [...]

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