Lae Airfield is a former

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

airfield and later, civilian airport located at

Lae Lae (, , later ) is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River on the northern coast of Huon Gulf. It is at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is ...

Morobe Province Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands Province ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. The airport was closed in the 1980s, in favour of

Lae Nadzab Airport Officially named Nadzab Tomodachi International Airport, Nadzab Airport is a regional airport located at Nadzab outside Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea along the Highlands Highway. It is served by both private and regional aircraft with do ...

, which was able to accommodate larger jet aircraft. The airport was also known as Lae Drome or Lae Aerodrome.

History

The airport was built in 1927 and was an operating airport until 1977. The airport construction resulted in Lae becoming a major city in Papua New Guinea.

Post World War I

In 1921 when the military administration ended after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, a gold prospector named Cecil John Levien was appointed District Officer of Morobe. On 1 January 1923 Levien acquired a mining right for the area and shortly after formed a syndicate called ''Guinea Gold (No Liability)''. In November 1927 the Guinea Gold syndicate became Guinea Airways Limited and Levien arranged for the construction of the airstrip to assist the gold mine productions around

Wau Wau may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Papua New Guinea * Wau, Papua New Guinea * Wau Airport (Papua New Guinea) * Wau Rural LLG, (local level government) South Sudan * Wau State, South Sudan * Wau, South Sudan, city * Wau railway s ...

World War II

In February 1942 Nadzab was a mission station with a small landing strip which was quickly neglected when war broke out. It was never used by the Japanese. During Japanese occupation they upgraded the nearby Malahang runway to be used as a satellite of Lae Airfield. In September 1943 the Nadzab mission was invaded by US paratroopers dropping from 96 C-47s. Reconstruction of the airstrip began immediately. Overhead some 250 bombers and fighters provided cover by bombing Japanese troop positions and fuel depots. Next day elements of the 7th Australian Division were flown in to attack Lae from the north whilst the 9th Australian Division landed to the east by sea to move on Lae in a pincer movement. The 503rd Bomber Group historian wrote: :"''Bombing was excellent. The mission was uneventful''".Gene Eric Salecker.
Fortress Against The Sun: The B-17
'. Da Capo Press; 2001. . p. 365–.

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

was appointed Lieutenant Commander in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

on 21 June 1940. Eleven

Martin B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in ...

s of the 22nd Bombardment Group departed

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

on 8 June 1942, arrived in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

and raided Lae on 9 June 1942. The mission was called "TOW 9" and Lieutenant Commander Lyndon Baines Johnson, the future 36th President of the United States, went on this raid as an observer on the aircraft, the ''Heckling Hare''. Nine days after the raid, Johnson was awarded a

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...

medal for his participation in the above bombing raid. in

Post WW2

The airstrip recovered to become a significant factor in the development of post-war PNGThe old Lae airport, Dec 03, 2007, ''Malum Nalu'' accessed 8 Jan 2014
/ref>

Decommission

The old Lae airfield started losing its thunder in 1977 when

, a former wartime United States Air Force base, became operational. Fierce political squabbling over the pros and cons of Lae and Nadzab continued until 1982, when, in an unsolved mystery, the Lae airport terminal was burned down. Airnewguinea-old-lae-airfield

Lae airfield continued to be used by

Air Niugini Air Niugini Limited is the flag carrier of Papua New Guinea, based in Air Niugini House on the site of Port Moresby International Airport, Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby to 12 major airports while its subsidiary ...

and other third-level airlines until 1987. It was also used as the base for the

Papua New Guinea Defence Force The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into bei ...

until it was transferred to Port Moresby in 1992. Old-lae-airfield

First flight

The first flight into the airfield was a DH-37 flown by E. A. "Pard" Mustar. The aircraft was shipped from

Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province ...

on the S.S. Melusia and flown to Lae on 31 March 1927. From 1922 to 1942 the airfield was part of a massive airlift operation to service the Bulolo goldfields and was one of the largest airlift operations in the world.

Junkers W34 The Junkers W 34 was a Germany, German-built, single-engine, passenger and transport aircraft. Developed in the 1920s, it was taken into service in 1926. The passenger version could take a pilot and five passengers. The aircraft was developed ...

planes were ideal and the German Junkers aeroplanes played a major part in the exploration and development of what is today Papua New Guinea. To mine the gold required the construction on site of several 1500+ ton dredges with the heaviest part scaling over 3 tons.

Junkers W34 aircraft

The first Junkers W34 B, VH-UGZ (), was bought disassembled in big crates to New Guinea and made its test flight on 10 April 1928. The first two G31s were called Peter and Paul, the third simply G31. This aircraft could carry two passengers and a ton of freight in the cargo compartment. In the first 19 days of operation the W34 No 1 earned gross revenue of £2,649 with field costs of £360. The second W34 was ordered on 8 June 1928 and arrived in December. By then No 1 W34 had carried 500 passengers and 300 tons of freight. Guinea Airways eventually purchased five of these simple, rugged and honest Junkers machines unmatched at the time by any other manufacturer. The aircraft could be loaded or unloaded in 15 minutes through a large open hatch on the roof with the gantry crane above the aircraft.Linke, R 2006, The influence of German surveying on the development of New Guinea
Association of Surveyors of PNG
Accessed 25 January 2014.

Amelia Earhart

The Lae airport is probably best remembered for being the point of departure in July 1937 for

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

and navigator

Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph Noonan (born April 4, 1893 – disappeared July 2, 1937, declared dead June 20, 1938) was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer, who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean ...

on their flight to

Howland Island Howland Island () is a coral island and strict nature reserve located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an Territories of the ...

. Earhart's plane disappeared near Howland Island some 19 hours after departing Lae airport.

Allied Units based at Lae Airfield

* Headquarters, 309th Bombardment Wing (1 February – 3 March 1944)

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

Former Airlines

*Bulolo Goldfields Air Service *

Guinea Airways Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

*Morlae Airlines (Port Moresby) * Ansett Airways *

Trans Australia Airlines Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Bran ...

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

References

Notes

External links

Old Lae Airport
{{authority control Defunct airports in Papua New Guinea Airports in Papua New Guinea Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Papua New Guinea Airports established in 1927 Morobe Province German New Guinea Lae