Marrak Point was the location and common name for a minor

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 ...

airfield on the west coast of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. It was operational from 1942 to 1945.

Name

The station was referred to as

Bluie Bluie was the United States military code name for Greenland during World War II. It is remembered by the numbered sequence of base locations identified by the 1941 United States Coast Guard South Greenland Survey Expedition, and subsequently u ...

West Four (BW-4) in the USAAF, and as "Teague Field" by many. The location was marked as "Teague" on post-war aeronautical maps. State Department documents of 1945 define the U.S. Defense Area there as 6324N to 6327N, 5104W to 5116W.

History

Lt. Teague, a

USAAF 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 ...

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

pilot, discovered Marrak Point by accident on 5 June 1942. His aircraft was part of a movement of B-17s across the Atlantic via Sondrestrom (BW-8). Unable to find his destination and running out of fuel, his crew searched the west coast for a flat place and set down successfully on the flat, rocky surface at Marrak Point. Assisted and refueled by the

USCGC North Star The USCGC ''North Star'' was a United States Coast Guard Cutter during the Second World War. It was originally built for the U.S. Interior Department and served in the United States Coast Guard (USCG) before being acquired by the U.S. Navy. Hi ...

days after, the B-17 returned to Sondrestrom on 11 June and it was decided to turn the landing place into a radio and weather station with an accompanying airstrip. The station, which is midways between BW-8 and BW-1, was then added to the airways system as BW-4. The first intended aircraft movement occurred on 4 October 1942, when a PBY-5A from VP-93 at BW-1 landed there. Marrak Point was the site of a major air crash in August 1945, when an Army

OA-10 Catalina The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In U.S. Army service, it was designated as the OA- ...

from BW-1 crashed into nearby mountains with the loss of all aboard. Marrak Point is one of the locations along the route of the Greenland Air Trophy 2019.

Legacy

Despite its advantageous location close to the capital

Godthaab Nuuk (; , formerly ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Greenland, most populous city of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of Government of Greenland, government an ...

() and other populated areas on the western coast, the Danish government could find no use for the airfield after the USAAF evacuated it after the war. Remaining stores and items were taken or vandalized by locals. Remaining usable, the runway was kept on air navigation charts for many years.

References

*Documentation for Teague Field, aka BW-4, can be found at the Greenland Base Command files of the

Air Force Historical Research Agency The Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) the Department of the Air Force's central repository for physical and digital documentation. The archivists and historians who work at AFHRA collect, manage, and preserve the archival collectio ...

(AFHRA) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. *Documentation for founding and support can be found in the U.S. Coast Guard War Diaries for 1940–45. {{authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Greenland Airports established in 1942 1942 establishments in Greenland