Nukufetau_Airfield Knowpia

Nukufetau Airfield
Nukufetau Airfield
Part of Seventh Air Force
Nukufetau, Gilbert and Ellice Islands
Coordinates	08°03′54″S 178°22′38″E / 8.06500°S 178.37722°E (Approximate)
Type	Military airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces; United States Marine Corps
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1943

Nukufetau Airfield is a former World War II airfield on the south-eastern side of Nukufetau on Motulalo Island in Tuvalu during the Pacific War.

History edit

40mm antiaircraft gun from the United States Marine Corps' 2d Airdrome Battalion defending the LST offload at Nukufetau on August 28, 1943.

Nukufetau Airfield was built by United States Navy Seabees on Motulalo island as an alternative strip to Nanumea and Funafuti airfields to allow for further dispersal of aircraft in the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu).^[1] Two intersecting runways formed an "X" shape. On 8 September 1943 the 16th Naval Construction Battalion commenced construction of a fighter strip (3500 feet by 200 feet) and a bomber strip (6100 feet by 220 feet). Nearly 50,000 coconut trees had to be cut down and about 2,000 feet of the runways were built on fill over swamp.^[2] The first plane to land on the airfield was a PB4Y Privateer piloted by Major General Charles F. B. Price on October 3, 1943. The general conducted a quick inspection of the new airfield and quickly took off again. The airfield was officially opened on October 6, 1943.^[3]

United States Marine Corps (USMC) units based at Nukufetau included:

Navy Bombing Squadron 108 (VB-108), operating PB4Y-1 Liberators, landed on 7 November 1943^[4]^[5]
Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 331 (VMSB-331), operating Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, arrived on 15 November 1943^[4]^[5]
2d Airdrome Battalion - responsible for air defense of the base from August 1943 - March 1944.^[6]

United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) using the base included:

26th Bombardment Squadron operating B-24s from 11 November 1943 – 25 January 1944^[7]
98th Bombardment Squadron operating B-24s from 11 November 1943 – 20 January 1944^[7]

Postwar edit

The debris from a crashed B-24 Liberator remained on the island.^[8] After the Pacific War the airfield was dismantled and the land returned to its owners, however as the coral base was compacted to make the runways the land now provides poor ground for growing coconuts.^[9]

References edit

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Citations

^ Building the Navy's Bases in World War II History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps 1940-1946. US Government Printing Office. 1947. p. 236. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ McKillop, Jack. "Ellice Islands". Funafuti, Naval Advance Base. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
^ Henry & Bartlett 1985, pp. 37.
^ ^a ^b Sherrod, Robert (1952). History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Combat Forces Press. ISBN 0-89201-048-7.
^ ^a ^b "Marine Corps in WWII Vol IV - Western Pacific Operations" (PDF). Marine Aviation Western Pacific. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
^ Henry & Bartlett 1985, pp. 34–39.
^ ^a ^b Maurer, Maxwell AFB (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
^ Bartsch, Bill. "War Relics in Tuvalu and Kiribati" (PDF). South Pacific Bulletin (1975). Retrieved 7 April 2014.
^ Melei Telavi, Hugh Laracy, ed. (1983). "Chapter 18 - War". Tuvalu: A History. Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Government of Tuvalu. p. 143.

Bibliography

Maurer, Maxwell, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.

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