Boston Port of Embarkation

Within three months after entry of the United States into World War II Boston was being established as a sub-port of New York.

Camp Myles Standish, a component of the Boston POE, was the main staging area for troops.

[2] The port commands were broadly given responsibility for specific theaters of the war with Boston focused on the North Atlantic and northern Europe.

[3][4] Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland were supported by the Boston port but the heaviest cargo tonnage were shipments to northern Europe.

[6][4][note 2] Sub-ports of Boston were established at Providence, Rhode Island (brief operation early in the war), Searsport (ammunition and explosives), Maine and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Quebec City and Montreal in Canada.

[11] As of 31 December 1944 the Boston Port of Embarkation employed 12,558 people of which 4,881 were military, 4,570 civilian and 3,107 other workers that included contractors, Italian Service Units and German prisoners of war.

For troops, the originating location would receive movement orders about five days prior to transport with details of the destination and time of arrival.

[20] On large troop ships the transport command included a permanent staff of administration, commissary, medical and chaplain personnel.

No regular shipping company maintained a line to Greenland and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for constructing bases.

The initial transport was aboard USAT Sicilien but due to local conditions smaller vessels had to be used for the final portion.

[24][note 5] At the beginning of the war the existing Boston Army Base, completed October 1918 and previously the Boston Quartermaster Terminal, was converted to function within a port of embarkation by removing the Quartermaster Depot functions that supported operations other than transshipment.

[25][26] The port operated special Army piers and storage facilities for ammunition and explosives with berths for seven ships at Castle Island in Boston harbor.

[27] The Searsport sub-port, with a leased railway pier and focused on ammunition and explosives, was developed to relieve Castle Island.