[c++] Do I need to explicitly call the base virtual destructor?

No, you never call the base class destructor, it is always called automatically like others have pointed out but here is proof of concept with results:

class base {
public:
    base()  { cout << __FUNCTION__ << endl; }
    ~base() { cout << __FUNCTION__ << endl; }
};

class derived : public base {
public:
    derived() { cout << __FUNCTION__ << endl; }
    ~derived() { cout << __FUNCTION__ << endl; } // adding call to base::~base() here results in double call to base destructor
};


int main()
{
    cout << "case 1, declared as local variable on stack" << endl << endl;
    {
        derived d1;
    }

    cout << endl << endl;

    cout << "case 2, created using new, assigned to derive class" << endl << endl;
    derived * d2 = new derived;
    delete d2;

    cout << endl << endl;

    cout << "case 3, created with new, assigned to base class" << endl << endl;
    base * d3 = new derived;
    delete d3;

    cout << endl;

    return 0;
}

The output is:

case 1, declared as local variable on stack

base::base
derived::derived
derived::~derived
base::~base


case 2, created using new, assigned to derive class

base::base
derived::derived
derived::~derived
base::~base


case 3, created with new, assigned to base class

base::base
derived::derived
base::~base

Press any key to continue . . .

If you set the base class destructor as virtual which one should, then case 3 results would be same as case 1 & 2.