Dora-9,

Thanks for expanding my knowledge of Aussie slang. ;)

Furphy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TD:

Correct ID of both aircraft and owner unit -not Fenton though (which was a much more heavily timbered location), nor is it Garbutt.

On the basis that "a fast game is a good game", here's another clue (different location on the same airfield, almost two years later):

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psd6ad5082.gif

That escarpment to the East makes me think it could be Adelaide or Perth. However as the black swan is a Western Australia icon it could be a significant clue, so I'll go for Perth.
(It is only 1600 nm from their main base in the NT, but in 1945 I guess their navigation wasn't all that great). :E

Wild guess - Corunna Downs in the Pilbara ?

just a guess. Gawler in South Australia.

LFH has it! Well done, that man - it is Corunna Downs, Australia's "secret air base". Over to you!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...pse2ced8de.jpg

That distinct ridge is immediately south of the main runway - the domestic site lay immediately to the west of this.

Also Terry D - the black swan indicated 25 (City of Perth) Squadron - the connection is obvious - who were based at Cunderdin, east of the Perth, and not in the NT. The remainder of the RAAF force, 82 Wing, comprising 21, 23 & 24 Sqns, were based in the NT. All these units, plus earlier the USAAF's 380th BG, used Corunna to stage through to attack targets in Java. History waffle ends....

What a desolate place!
No wonder it was a "secret" airfield.
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...um/8860200.jpg
Thanks for the incentive to embark on a great history lesson.
(Just finished looking up the details of when the later version nose turrets were fitted to the B-24 as in the second photo).

Yes, and it was 15 miles from Marble Bar, statistically the hottest town in Australia. What a great place to be posted!

I flew into here regularly in the late 1960's, despite being closed in 1945 it was then quite well preserved. The revetments were impressively huge and in a much better state than they are now - then they still looked exactly like the three you can see in the background to my 25 Sqn photo....

There is another airfield at Noonkanbah (then called Nookanbah), ESE from Derby, with similarly enormous revetments (positioned even further away from the airfield) obviously intended for the same purpose, although it doesn't seem to have seen much use in fact.

Thanks Chaps for eliminating all the obvious airfields. Interesting to see how many of these obscure places got bombed - in addition to the well known raids such as on Darwin and Broome. No wonder they staged through. Apparently the livestock got strafed on occasion too - mistaken for troops in the open.

Here's the next - LFH

http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1380009917

LFH, I think that Corunna was never located by the Japanese - however there was a nocturnal raid by a "Mavis" on Anna Plains (on the coast south of Broome), it's thought that while the Japanese were aware of a large staging airfield somewhere in the Pilbara, they located and subsequently attacked the prominent airfield at Anna Plains in error.

Yes. It appears that the Japanese never found the place.
When I was searching for "Corunna Downs" to find out where the hell it was, I came across an entry that seemed to imply that the only casualty there was some poor sod who was killed when he fell off a truck when they were all leaving.

Clue: It's not Australia. ;). LFH

LFH - a ranging shot. Germany?

A lot warmer and a lot further East than Germany, Dora.

Looks like I'm flogging a dead duck here. SE Asia - ca 1948. LFH

San bay Gia Lam, Ha Noi, Vietnam

C2j

Not Hanoi Cubs - but you're in the right territory - (then and now - but not in between) LFH

As I am a newcomer to this thread, can someone explain to me what strategy I should use in locating the current challenge.

I came in on the previous B-24 challenge because there were several clues in that photo.
B-24 & nose art = aircraft and squadron = unit history. Date clue = operational area. Background terrain = possible locations etc.

The current challenge is such low resolution that there is not much detail to work with. There is an airfield and some buildings, some trees, a river and a road. That eliminates places in the desert or snow, but that is about all.

I can nail the location in 30 seconds using Google images, but that method seems to be frowned upon. :=

Help.

Welcome to the thread, Terry. More and more participants are now aware of GI and try to post pictures not already on the web, or obfuscate ones that are.

What is really "frowned on" by most here, is a technique employed by some posters of immediately going to GI and then posting a series of questions, giving the appearance of clever research, while narrowing down the choices to the "correct answer". What's the point?

The only time I look at GI in connection with these threads, is to check an image I want to post.