Which Aerodrome?
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I would agree - RAF Trincomalee. Right road layout, accommodation blocks and hangars (except the left hand one which appears, on Google Earth, to have been demolished). There's what looks like a Bristol Freighter bottom left - could the RNZAF have reached there from Malaya? Perhaps not; perhaps it's a Valetta. Strangest thing comes to mind - some 25 years ago I lived in a town in Oxfordshire next door to an old chap who had been Orderly Room Corporal for a flying boat squadron based at Trincomalee during WWII. He remembered drafting the CO's letters of condolence to the families of a 'boat crew lost over the Indian Ocean between Malaya and Ceylon. Then he found, at a squadron reunion, that the Flight Engineer's son lived just round the corner from us .......
Well that didn't last long!
RAF China Bay as it was in 1957.
ARCHIE1
In 1957 RAF Changi based Bristol Freighters of 41 Sqn Royal New Zealand Air Force shared the weekly Singapore to Negombo (Katunayake) Ceylon (Sri Lanka) shuttle with RAF (48 and 52 Sqn). Valettas.
RNZAF 41 Sqn Freighter below, with an engine that looks as if it leaks oil like an Iraqi oil well!
Standard routing was Changi - Butterworth (sometimes) - Car Nicobar - Negombo (Katunayake). Next day they flew up and back to China Bay with pax, mail and freight for the RAF detachment at China Bay and the Royal Navy base at Trincomalee.
A bit of China Bay WWII history. On 10-11th August 1944 54 USAAF B.29's flew from China Bay against the Palembang oil refineries in Japanese occupied Sumatra - the 3,900 miles flight from Ceylon to Palembang and back was the longest single-stage flight undertaken by USAAF combat aircraft in WWII. Long-range RAF B.24 Liberators and Catalinas also flew supply and agent dropping missions from China Bay in support of SOE operations in Burma and Malaya.
RAF China Bay as it was in 1957.
ARCHIE1
There's what looks like a Bristol Freighter bottom left - could the RNZAF have reached there from Malaya? Perhaps not; perhaps it's a Valetta
RNZAF 41 Sqn Freighter below, with an engine that looks as if it leaks oil like an Iraqi oil well!
Standard routing was Changi - Butterworth (sometimes) - Car Nicobar - Negombo (Katunayake). Next day they flew up and back to China Bay with pax, mail and freight for the RAF detachment at China Bay and the Royal Navy base at Trincomalee.
A bit of China Bay WWII history. On 10-11th August 1944 54 USAAF B.29's flew from China Bay against the Palembang oil refineries in Japanese occupied Sumatra - the 3,900 miles flight from Ceylon to Palembang and back was the longest single-stage flight undertaken by USAAF combat aircraft in WWII. Long-range RAF B.24 Liberators and Catalinas also flew supply and agent dropping missions from China Bay in support of SOE operations in Burma and Malaya.
How about another clue, Bri?
You said 1942, so is the location Asia/Pacific?
You said 1942, so is the location Asia/Pacific?
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Sorry, not the Asia/Pacific Theatre. The site is presently a modern airport that goes by a different name. The WW.II era aircraft dispersals are faintly visible on Google Earth
Last edited by evansb; 28th May 2008 at 21:49.
I needed a Torch to find this airfield! 
Port Lyautey (now Kenitra), Morrocco. Very good challenge, bri.
Open house after confirmation by evansb.
Port Lyautey (now Kenitra), Morrocco. Very good challenge, bri.
Open house after confirmation by evansb.
Last edited by India Four Two; 29th May 2008 at 01:54.
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India Four Two is spot on
Well done
In November of 1942 combined U.S. military forces stormed the beaches at Port Lyautey in French Morrocco. They fought a numerically inferior French force, and secured the airfield and surrounding villages and town 3 days later. Yes, they fought the French. As the Captain says, its open house!
Well done In November of 1942 combined U.S. military forces stormed the beaches at Port Lyautey in French Morrocco. They fought a numerically inferior French force, and secured the airfield and surrounding villages and town 3 days later. Yes, they fought the French. As the Captain says, its open house!
Yes, they fought the French
This must have been the quickest conclusion of a seaborne invasion in history.
No takers? How about this one?
Tiger_mate has it. Over to you.
I had to double check to make sure it really was Burtonwood. The tower was unlike anything I had ever seen before in the UK.
I had to double check to make sure it really was Burtonwood. The tower was unlike anything I had ever seen before in the UK.
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I spent several years of my youth as a member of an Air Cadet Gliding school there and knew the place pretty well. Subsidence from coal mining contributed to its demise as the USAF airhead in the UK, a role which Mildenhall took on. I may even have been on the crew of the last military aircraft to land there before developers took over, but that is a story in itself.
Sadly I cannot be around to update another airfield, and therefore hand it over as an: OPEN HOUSE
Sadly I cannot be around to update another airfield, and therefore hand it over as an: OPEN HOUSE
