Morokrembangan Naval Air Base (, ) was a former naval air base of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

.Woudstra (1982), p. 116. The air base was located in

Soerabaja Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

and used by the

Netherlands Naval Aviation Service The Netherlands Naval Aviation Service (, shortened to MLD) is the naval aviation branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy. History World War I Although the MLD was formed in 1914, with the building of a seaplane base at De Mok, Texel, it deve ...

.Bosscher (1986), p. 37. At the start of 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 ...

Morokrembangan Naval Air Base was the largest and best equipped naval air base in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and considered to be one of the most modern naval air bases in the world.De Java-Bode: Wat zij is en brengt (1936), p. 73. After the handover of sovereignty to Indonesia in December 1949, the air base was used by the Indonesian Naval Aviation until 1960s, when it was closed and replaced by the new Juanda Naval Air Base.

History

The construction of the air base was started with the land reclamation at the mouth of Krembangan River by the colonial government in 1918, which was finished in 1919, while the construction of seaplane hangars and other buildings was started in 1920. In 1925 it was decided to move the main naval air base from Tandjong Priok to

.Walaardt Sacré, van den Abeelen and Spittel (1932), p. 133. In the same year, on 30 June 1925, Morokrembangan Naval Air Base was put into service. While the air base had been put into service on 30 June 1925 it was still being equipped during the remainder of the year.Walaardt Sacré, van den Abeelen and Spittel (1932), p. 134. The main task of Morokrembangan Naval Air Base was to provide maintenance for the material and equipment of the

. To this end the base was equipped with several workstations, factories, hangars and runways that were continuously expanded and modernized over the years. In addition, it also had a port for

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

s. Besides maintenance the base also provided pilot training. The air base was also used for commercial flight by the Royal Dutch East Indies Airways (KNILM).

Second World War

A recon aircraft from

Tainan Air Group was a fighter aircraft and airbase garrison unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The flying portion of the unit was heavily involved in many of the major campaigns and battles of the first year of ...

scouted the air base on 1–2 February 1942. Morokrembangan Naval Air Base was one of the targets during the first Japanese air raid on Soerabaja on 3 February.Bosscher (1986), p. 252. During this attack three Dornier Do 24 K, two

PBY 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 O ...

, two Fokker T.IV W, three

Dornier Do J Wal The Dornier Do J ''Wal'' ("whale") is a twin-engine German flying boat of the 1920s designed by ''Dornier Flugzeugwerke''. The Do J was designated the Do 16 by the Reich Air Ministry (''RLM'') under its aircraft designation system of 1933. De ...

and two Ryan trainer aircraft were destroyed. Morokrembangan was attacked again on 5 February, with the Japanese bombers escorted by 27

A6M Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

and from Tainan Air Group and 11 A6M Zero from 3rd Air Group. The raid destroyed six Dutch navy aircraft and various facilities of the air base. On 3 March, a force of 75 Japanese aircraft, 27 of which are bombers, attacked Soerabaja. Some of the dive bombers attacked Morokrembangan.Oktorino 2019, p. 256-257 Soerabaja was captured by the 48th Division of 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 ...

on 8 March and the air base soon came under Japanese control. The 33rd Air Group of

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

, consisted of eight

Aichi D3A The Aichi D3A (Navy designation "Type 99 Carrier Bomber"; World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft, Allied reporting name "Val") is a World War II carrier-borne dive bomber. It was the primary dive bomber of the Imperial Japanese Na ...

and eight

Nakajima B5N The Nakajima B5N (, World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft, Allied reporting name "Kate") was the standard Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based torpedo bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for much of World War II. It also served ...

bombers, was stationed in Morokrembangan air base in April 1942.

Post-Second World War

After the

Proclamation of Indonesian Independence The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence (, or simply ''Proklamasi'') was read at 10:00 Tokyo Standard Time on Friday 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian Nati ...

on 17 August 1945, the air base was taken over by Indonesian republican forces. The Republican forces also captured the IJN aircraft stationed there, although they lacked qualified pilots to fly the aircraft. The air base was bombarded by

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ships during the

Battle of Surabaya The Battle of Surabaya () was a major battle in the Indonesian National Revolution fought between regular infantry and militia of the Indonesian nationalist movement and British and British Indian Army, British Indian troops against the re-imp ...

in October–November 1945. At the conclusion of the battle, the air base was briefly used by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, and later it was given back to the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service. At the end of the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during A ...

in December 1949, the air base was handed over to the

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy (, TNI-AL) is the Navy, naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol Indonesia's lengthy coastline, to enforce and patrol the territorial waters and Exclus ...

. As the main air base of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Command, it was the home base of the Indonesian Navy's

Fairey Gannet The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed for the Royal Navy, being the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine both the search an ...

ASW aircraft and

Grumman HU-16 Albatross The Grumman HU-16 Albatross is a large, twin-radial engined amphibious flying boat that was used by the United States Air Force (USAF), the U.S. Navy (USN), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the Royal Canadian Air Force primarily as a search and ...

flying boats. In preparation for the upcoming

Operation Trikora Operation Trikora () was a combined Soviet– Indonesian military operation which aimed to seize and annex the Dutch overseas territory of New Guinea in 1961 and 1962. After negotiations, the Netherlands signed the New York Agreement with Ind ...

, the Navy felt that the length of the runways in Morokrembangan Naval Air Base were insufficient to operate future jet aircraft. A new naval air base was built to the southeast of Surabaya in

Sidoarjo Regency Sidoarjo Regency () is a regency in East Java, Indonesia. It is bordered by Surabaya City and Gresik Regency to the north, by Pasuruan Regency to the south, by Mojokerto Regency to the west, and by the Madura Strait to the east. It has a land ar ...

. The new Juanda Naval Air Base was opened in 1964 and the naval aviation operation were gradually moved there. Morokrembangan air base was closed sometime later in the 1960s. Nowadays, the site of former runways and hangars is located in the

container terminal A container port, container terminal, or intermodal terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land v ...

for the Tanjung Perak harbor, while the site of former seaplane hangars was located inside a naval base.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * * * * {{Airports in Indonesia Defunct airports in Indonesia Surabaya Airports in East Java Airports established in 1925 Airfields of the Royal Netherlands Navy Military installations of the Dutch East Indies Military installations of Indonesia