Munda Point

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Munda Point
The Munda Point airfield (ca.1946).  The jungle has now overgrown parts of the previously exposed hills again.
Characteristics
ICAO code AGGM
IATA code MUA
Coordinates

8 ° 19 '41 "  S , 157 ° 15' 47"  E Coordinates: 8 ° 19 '41 "  S , 157 ° 15' 47"  E

Height above MSL 3 m (10  ft )


Start-and runway
07/25 1400 m × 30 m asphalt

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Munda Point Airfield during the Pacific War (1943)

Munda Airport is the name of the largest airport on the Solomon Islands -Insel New Georgia in about 3,000 inhabitants city Munda in the northwest of the island.

Munda is the island's tourist center thanks to the airport , which can be reached in just over an hour's flight from Honiara , the capital of the Solomon Islands on Guadalcanal .

Before the Second World War , the land on the Roviana Lagoon belonged to a Methodist mission founded in 1902 in the plain of the Kokenggolo Hill .

On November 13, 1942 , the Japanese destroyer Hakazi brought three companies of the 6th Sasebo naval landing units to Munda Point, which were later reinforced by the 13th and 229th Japanese infantry regiments under Taisa Hirata Genjiro . The Japanese army had previously issued a directive within a month, at Munda Airport a strategically important airfield was build after which about 240 kilometers north of the Lunga Point airfield is located on Guadalcanal. Construction work began in mid-November under the utmost secrecy. So that the runway under construction could not be seen from the air, the Japanese tied the surrounding tall palm trees with wires at the tops and also placed palm fronds on this roof structure. After completion, they simply cut the logs and exposed the path. However , information about the construction got through the coast guard Danny Kennedy to Guadalcanal, where the Americans had already taken the Japanese airfield Lunga Point in August and continued to operate it under the name Henderson Field for their purposes. US reconnaissance flights identified increased barge traffic and showed many crushed coral banks along the airfield. However, by December 17, the Japanese managed to build a one kilometer long and 40 meter wide runway for their warplanes . Immediately afterwards the construction of a runway for bombers began , which should have a length of 1.4 kilometers.

The Japanese Navy and Army Air Force used the airfield as an advanced base for their 204th and 252nd Kokutai ( Zero ), 582nd Kokutai ( Val ) and 11th Sentai ( Oscar ). The air units mainly flew relief attacks on the American positions on Guadalcanal and supported the Japanese efforts to recapture Henderson Airfield (→ Battle of Guadalcanal ). The Americans tried to disrupt or prevent these activities by ongoing bombing from aircraft carriers .

During the Battle of the Northern Solomon Islands , the Americans landed on New Georgia in the Battle of New Georgia on June 20, 1943. Munda Point itself fell on August 5th after the airfield was the focus of American advances on July 22nd.

After the conquest, the Americans expanded the runway to about five kilometers in length and laid out an extensive road network. The airfield became the most used by Americans in the Solomon Islands. There were TBF Avengers , F4U- and B-24 bombers stationed.

literature

  • Maurer: Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB , Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983, ISBN 0-89201-092-4
  • Mauer: Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II , Air Force Historical Studies Office, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, 1969, ISBN 0-89201-097-5

Individual evidence

  1. the Japanese rank Taisa literally means great assistance and corresponds to a colonel .

Web links

Munda Point (Munda Point Airfield). In: Pacific Wrecks. Accessed August 2, 2020 .