The Panama Sea Frontier was responsible for the defense of the Pacific and Atlantic sea approaches to the Panama Canal and for naval shore facilities in the Central America region during World War II. The Sea Frontier headquarters were located in Balboa, Panama.
On the west coast of the Americas, the responsibility of the Panama Sea Frontier was to protect Allied shipping in an ocean area extending from the Mexico-Guatemala border and out around the Galapagos, then to latitude 5 degree south. On the eastern side of Panama, the sea frontier was responsible for the coastal areas from the Mexico-British Honduras boundary on the Yucatán Peninsula along latitude 18 degrees 5 minutes north to longitude 80 degrees 27 minutes west, and thence to Punta de Gallinas. However, the prime responsibility of this sea frontier was the protection and defense of the Panama Canal and its operating equipment.
The Panama Sea Frontier also had to contend with political as well as military forces, since the president of Panama, Arnulfo Arias, had pro-German leanings, and also because neutral Panama, like neutral Spain in Europe, was a haven for Axis agents, sympathizers, and spies. Anulfo Arias was replaced as president with the pro-Allied Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango, shortly before America was attacked at Pearl Harbor. However, pro-Axis sympathy continued for the followers of Anulfo Arias, and others, and German influence continued to be very strong in the region.
Karl Dönitz was a German admiral during the Nazi era who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as the German head of state in 1945. As Supreme Commander of the Navy since 1943, he played a major role in the naval history of World War II. The Nuremberg Trials court convicted him of war crimes in 1946.
Clifton Albert Frederick "Ziggy" Sprague was a World War II-era officer in the United States Navy.
Henry Kent Hewitt was the United States Navy commander of amphibious operations in north Africa and southern Europe through World War II. He was born in Hackensack, New Jersey and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1906.
USS Breckinridge (DD–148) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II, later reclassified as AG-112. She was named for Ensign Joseph Breckinridge.
USS Goldsborough (DD-188/AVP-18/AVD-5/APD-32) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second Navy ship named for Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough (1805–1877). Entering service in 1920, the ship had a brief active life before being placed in reserve in 1922. Goldsborough was reactivated for World War II and was used as an aircraft tender, destroyer and high speed transport in both Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Following the war, the ship was sold for scrapping in 1946.
William Robert Munroe was a decorated officer in the United States Navy with the rank of Vice admiral. He trained as submarine commander and at the beginning of World War II, he served as Commander, Battleship Division 3 during Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic ocean.
The U.S. Fourth Fleet is a United States Navy numbered fleet. It is the Naval Component Command of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). The Fourth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. It is responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans around Central and South America.
Vice Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann, was a United States Navy officer who served in World War I and World War II.
Sea Frontiers were several, now disestablished, commands of the United States Navy existing from 1 July 1941 during World War II as areas of defense against enemy vessels, especially submarines, along the American coasts. Sea Frontiers generally started at the shore of the United States and extended outwards into the sea for a nominal distance of two hundred miles.
The Eastern Sea Frontier (EASTSEAFRON) was a United States Navy operational command during World War II, that was responsible for the coastal waters from Canada to Jacksonville, Florida, extending out for a nominal distance of two hundred miles. The Commander was designated Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier (COMEASTSEAFRON). COMEASTSEAFRON had vessels for convoy use or other uses determined by the commander. In addition to providing escorts for convoys within its frontier, the frontier was responsible for sea-air rescue, harbor defense, shipping lane patrol, minesweeping, and air operations.
USS J. R. Y. Blakely (DE-140) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
USS Rhodes (DE-384) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Post-war she served the Navy as a radar picket ship.
Admiral Jerauld Wright was an officer in the United States Navy. He served as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Atlantic Command (CINCLANT) and the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT), and became the second Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), from April 1, 1954, to March 1, 1960, serving longer in these three positions than anyone else in history.
Prior to World War II, the Indian Ocean was an important maritime trade route between European nations and their colonial territories in East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, British India, Indochina, the East Indies (Indonesia), and Australia for a long time. Naval presence was dominated by the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet and the Royal Australian Navy as World War II began, with a major portion of the Royal Netherlands Navy operating in the Dutch East Indies and the Red Sea Flotilla of the Italian Regia Marina operating from Massawa.
The Southeast Pacific Area was one of the designated area commands created by the Combined Chiefs of Staff in the Pacific region during World War II. It was responsible to the Joint Chiefs of Staff via the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy (COMINCH), Admiral Ernest King. Rear Admiral Abel T. Bidwell, former commander of Cruiser Division Three, commanded the Southeast Pacific Area during the first months of the war.
The history of Panama during World War II begins in 1939. Due to the American-controlled Panama Canal cutting across the center of the country, Panama was of major strategic importance to the Allied war effort, as well as the most important strategic location in Latin America during World War II. It provided an invaluable link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that was vital to both commerce and the defense of the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, the defense of the Canal Zone was the United States' chief concern in the American Theater. Panama never received Lend-Lease assistance, but in return for the rights to build military infrastructure within Panamanian territory, the United States undertook large-scale public works projects, which did much to modernize the country and boost the economy.
The Commander-in-Chief, Levant was a senior administrative shore commander of the Royal Navy whose post was established in February 1943. The British Chiefs of Staff Committee ordered at that time that the Mediterranean Fleet was to be divided into two commands; one responsible for naval operations involving ships, and the other administrative and support, responsible for shore establishments. His subordinate establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Levant Command or Levant Station, In December 1943 the title was changed to Flag Officer, Levant and East Mediterranean. In January 1944 the two separate commands were re-unified into a single command with FOLEM merging back into Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet.
Francis Stuart Low was a decorated officer of the United States Navy with the rank of four-star Admiral. An expert in submarine warfare, Low is credited with the idea that twin-engined Army bombers could be launched from an aircraft carrier. This idea was later adopted for the planning of the Doolittle Raid.