Babo Airfield is a disused airfield located on the southern shore of Maccluer Gulf at Babo in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The airfield is located in an isolated low-lying swamp area.

History

The airfield was built by the Dutch in the late 1920s or 1930s. It was the final stop for KLM airlines in Dutch New Guinea. After the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

with Japan broke out in December 1941, a

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

engineering party with the assistance of the Dutch upgraded the airstrip for military use. First attacked by Japanese H6K Mavis flying boats on December 30, 1941, leaving 3 dead and 14 wounded, including a number of children. Three RAAF No. 13 Squadron Lockheed Hudson bombers were sent there to act as 'fighters', this temporary duty was regarded to be against enemy flying boats while the Dutch KNIL garrison of approximately 200 rushed to improve area defenses and create a clearing for a second runway. The Japanese 2nd Detachment landed at Babo on April 2, 1942 and occupied the town. Most of the Dutch soldiers escaped to Australia. The airfield was developed into a major base used by both the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

units in the Vogelkop Peninsula, staging to other airfields to the south Aru and Kai Islands or east to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. The Japanese built a second 'hardtop' runway creating two strips of 4,530' and 2,660' respectively. Naval troops constructed 15 bomber and 24 fighter revetments with more under construction. The base largely escaped any Allied bombing until mid-1943. The aerial units based at Babo opposed the American landings at Biak, but suffered heavy losses. The army's 24th Sentai lost 20 pilots and 40 planes while based at Babo in only 30 days then was withdrawn. The navy's 202nd

Kōkūtai A ''kōkūtai'' () was a military aviation unit in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS), similar to the Group (military aviation unit), air groups in other air arms and services of the time. Some comparable units included ''wing'' in th ...

was temporarily withdrawn from Babo for defense of Truk, then returned to Babo in June 1944. They lost 12 planes defending Biak, and were then disbanded. By mid-1944, the base was in range of medium bombers and ground attack planes from the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

5th Air Force, and came under heavy attack. It was neutralized from the air around October 1944, but never liberated by Allied forces. Tons of American and Australian bombs hit the airfield. Many of its aircraft were destroyed by parafrag bombs. Japanese ground crews even sawed off the engines from wrecked planes, in a desperate attempt to ward off further attacks, and used hulks to fill in bomb craters. Isolated from resupply or rescue, the remaining Japanese occupied the area until the end of the war.

References

* Pacific Wrecks - Babo Airfield Irian Jaya Indonesia {{authority control Airports in West Papua (province) Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II World War II sites in Indonesia