Barakoma Airfield

Barakoma Airfield
Barakoma, Vella Lavella

Barakoma Airfield December 1943
Coordinates 07°54′46.8″S 156°42′21.6″E / 7.913000°S 156.706000°E / -7.913000; 156.706000
Type Military Airfield
Site information
Controlled by United States Marine Corps
Condition abandoned
Site history
Built 1943
Built by Seebees
In use 1943-4
Materials Coral
Battles/wars Bougainville Campaign
Operation Cartwheel

Barakoma Airfield is a former World War II airfield on Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands archipelago.

History

World War II

The U.S. 35th Infantry Regiment landed on Vella Lavella on 15 August 1943 as part of the Solomon Islands campaign. The 58th Naval Construction Battalions landed with the Army and began building support facilities despite frequent Japanese air attacks. In August 1943 the Seebees surveyed and cleared a site for an airfield and began building a coral-surfaced 4,000 feet (1,200 m) by 200 feet (61 m) fighter runway. Airfield facilities such as a signal tower, operations room, aviation-gasoline tanks, and camp for operating personnel, were completed in September and the first landing was made on 24 September. By November 1943 an aviation-gasoline tank farm of six 1,000-barrel tanks, with a sea-loading line was operational.[1]

US Navy units based at Barakoma included:

USMC units based at Barakoma included:

TBF at Barakoma

On 15 June 1944 the airfield was abandoned and all salvageable materials were dismantled and removed by 12 July 1944.[2]

Postwar

The airfield is overgrown with vegetation.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Building the Navy's Bases in World War II History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps 1940-1946. US Government Printing Office. 1947. p. 266.
  2. ↑ Bases, p.267
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