The Fighting Seabees

The Fighting Seabees is a 1944 war film starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward. The picture portrays a heavily fictionalized account of the dilemma that led to the creation of the U.S. Navys Seabees in World War II. The supporting cast includes Dennis OKeefe and William Frawley, and the movie was directed by Edward Ludwig.

As a result of this tragedy, Yarrow finally convinces the US Navy to form Construction Battalions CBs, or the more familiar Seabees with Donovans assistance, despite their mutual romantic interest in war correspondent Constance Chesley Susan Hayward. Donovan and many of his men enlist and receive formal military training.The two men are teamed together on yet another island. The Japanese launch a major attack, which the Seabees barely manage to hold off, sometimes using heavy construction machinery such as bulldozers and a clamshell bucket. When word reaches Donovan of another approaching enemy column, there are no sailors left to oppose this new threat. In desperation, he rigs a bulldozer with explosives on its blade, intending to ram it into a petroleum storage tank. The plan works, sending a cascade of burning liquid into the path of the Japanese, who retreat in panic, right into the sights of waiting machine guns. However Wedge is shot in the process and dies in the explosion. ........

Source: Wikipedia