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:
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)