History
Durand Airfield consisted of a single main runway, running roughly NW-SE, being constructed by the 808th Airborne Engineers, and completed in August 1942. The runway was separate from the dispersal and camp areas, where revetments were carved into hillsides and taxiways elevated for drainage. Gun pits built of 55 gallon drums for anti-aircraft were built on the surrounding hills, and buildings on concrete slabs, or tents on gravel from the nearby quarry.
Many squadrons rotated in and out of the Airfield during its peak usage. Major units assigned to the station were:
- Headquarters, 38th Bomb Group (October 1942 – March 4, 1944)
- 71st Bomb Squadron, B-25 Mitchell
- 405th Bomb Squadron, B-25 Mitchell
- 822nd Bomb Squadron, B-25 Mitchell
- 823rd Bomb Squadron, B-25 Mitchell
- 13th Bombardment Squadron (3rd Attack Group), B-25 Mitchell
- 90th Bombardment Squadron (3rd Attack Group), B-25 Mitchell
- 499th Bombardment Squadron (345th Bomb Group), B-25 Mitchell
- 7th Fighter Squadron (49th Fighter Group), P-39 Aircobra
The airstrip was active during late 1942 and all of 1943 as a front-line base, It became a rear area when units moved forward to the Dobodura area.
As the airfield was located some distance from Port Moresby, the airfield has remained relatively isolated and disused since the war. There are no settlements on the airfield, only occasionally do people pass through the area searching for firewood or hunting. The runway, revetments and taxiway system are still present, but only clearly visible in the dry season when the grass has been burned away.
Read more about this topic: Durand Airfield
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.
In Beverly Hills ... they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows.
Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
—Ben C. Bradlee (b. 1921)