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North Field (Tinian)
Encyclopedia
North Field is a former World War II
airfield on Tinian
in the Mariana Islands
. Abandoned after the war, today North Field is a tourist attraction.
North Field is probably the most historically significant airfield used by the United States Army Air Forces
during World War II. It was a Twentieth Air Force
base for B-29 Superfortress
operations against the Japanese Home Islands in 1944 and 1945, however the airfield was also the base for the 509th Composite Group
which flew the two Atomic Bomb missions against Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
in August 1945, which led to the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan on September 2, 1945, and the end of the Pacific War.
Tinian, with its sister islands of the Marianas, had passed through Spanish and German hands prior to becoming a Protectorate of Japan following World War I
. Under Japanese administration, Tinian was largely a sugar plantation. In 1939, large-scale military construction began on Tinian by the Japanese Military. 1,200 prisoners were sent to the island from Japan for the construction of airfields as part of the defense of the Mariana Islands
, By 1944, the island had three military airfields with a fourth under construction. What would become North Field was a Japanese fighter airstrip 4,380' in length, built being known as Ushi Point Airfield.
By mid-1944, the Americans had advanced inside the Japanese ring of defense in the Pacific Theater
. On Tinian, the United States Army Air Forces
could establish bases to conduct long-range strategic offensive air operations over the Japanese Home Islands
with the new B-29 Superfortress
, which, during early 1944, was operating ineffectively from bases in China
. Bringing the superfortresses into the Central Pacific and stationing them in the Marianas would bring Japan within the range of the B-29, as well as provide the Twentieth Air Force
with reliable means of support from the western ports of the United States
. Assaulted on July 24, 1944 by United States Marines from Saipan
, which had just been taken the previous month. After a fierce bombardment, the 4th Marine Division landed. The Japanese were taken by surprise, and the offensive was regarded as one of the best-executed amphibious operations of the war.
Once under American control, a massive construction project was begun on the north end of Tinian; nearly the entire northern end of the island was occupied by runways, nearly 11 miles of taxiways and the airfield area, along with the various support facilities and containment areas. The Ushi Point Airfield had been expanded with three 8000' runways involving the movement of nearly 1,000,000 cubic yards of earth and coral while 900,000 truck miles were absorbed. A fourth runway was constructed in May 1945. Hardstands built for 265 B-29 bombers. The four parallel 8,000 foot runways are oriented nearly east-west. North Field was, at the time, the largest airfield in the world.
North Field came under the command of Twentieth Air Force
XXI Bomber Command
, with the 313th Bombardment Wing
being the host unit at the expansive station. Its operational groups, the 6th
(Circle R), 9th
(Circle X), 504th
(Circle E) and 505th Bombardment Group
s (Circle W) arrived in December 1944.
The four runways at North Field were lettered "A", "B", "C" and "D" from north to south. The 6th Group was parked on the south-side of Runway D, then going north the 9th Group was parked between C and D. The 504th between C and B, and the 505th on the south side of runway A. In addition, the B-29s were assigned specific hardstands for each aircraft so the ground crew could store spares and other items for each aircraft on them. The groups used the runway to the north side of their parking area hardstands, but this was not fast and firm, because if there was an accident and the runway was closed, the aircraft shifted to another runway.
Once in place, the groups of the 313th began flying missions, initially against Iwo Jima
, the Truk Islands, and other Japanese held areas. Later, they flew low-level night incendiary raids
on area targets in Japan
; participated in mining operations in the Shimonoseki Strait, and contributed to the blockade of the Japanese Empire by mining harbors in Japan and Korea
. In April 1945 the 313th assisted the invasion of Okinawa
by bombing Japanese airfields used by kamikaze
pilots.
A fifth group, the 509th Composite Group
, was assigned to the wing in May 1945 from Wendover AAF
, Utah
. The 509th, although assigned to the 313th Bomb Wing, was operationally controlled by Headquarters, Twentieth Air Force
. The 509th was given a base area near the airfield on the north tip of the island, several miles from the main installations in the center part of the island where the other groups were assigned. The 509th aircraft almost always used runway "A" and the aircraft were parked away from the other groups on the north side of the runway. Also unlike the other groups in the wing, the 509th used a wide variety of tail codes from various XXI Bomber Command groups, instead of using its own, so that the group's planes could not be identified by the Japanese. The 509th was also self contained, and drew little in resources from the 313th Wing or its other groups.
In early August, the mission of the 509th was revealed when the group flew the two Atomic Bomb missions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki
. In November, the 509th was relieved from assignment to the 313th Bomb Wing and was reassigned to Roswell AAF, New Mexico
.
After the Japanese surrender in August, 313th Bomb Wing units dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners and participated in show-of-force flights over Japan. The units of the 313th Bombardment Wing were either reassigned or inactivated within a few months after the end of the Pacific War. The last USAAF unit, the 505th Bombardment Group, left North Field on June 30, 1946, ending its use as an operational airfield, and the airfield being closed on 30 March 1947.
With the withdrawal of American forces after the war, North Field was abandoned, and it has been disused since the war, other than for occasional exercises by the United States Marine Corps
. Some abandoned B-29 hulks were left at the airfield after the war, but were melted down for scrap in the 1950s.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
airfield on Tinian
Tinian
Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
in the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
. Abandoned after the war, today North Field is a tourist attraction.
North Field is probably the most historically significant airfield used by the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during World War II. It was a Twentieth Air Force
Twentieth Air Force
The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
base for B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
operations against the Japanese Home Islands in 1944 and 1945, however the airfield was also the base for the 509th Composite Group
509th Composite Group
The 509th Composite Group was a United States Army Air Forces unit created during World War II, and tasked with operational deployment of nuclear weapons...
which flew the two Atomic Bomb missions against Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
in August 1945, which led to the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan on September 2, 1945, and the end of the Pacific War.
History
- See also: Battle of TinianBattle of TinianThe Battle of Tinian was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands from 24 July 1944 to 1 August 1944.-Background:...
Tinian, with its sister islands of the Marianas, had passed through Spanish and German hands prior to becoming a Protectorate of Japan following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Under Japanese administration, Tinian was largely a sugar plantation. In 1939, large-scale military construction began on Tinian by the Japanese Military. 1,200 prisoners were sent to the island from Japan for the construction of airfields as part of the defense of the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
, By 1944, the island had three military airfields with a fourth under construction. What would become North Field was a Japanese fighter airstrip 4,380' in length, built being known as Ushi Point Airfield.
By mid-1944, the Americans had advanced inside the Japanese ring of defense in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
. On Tinian, the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
could establish bases to conduct long-range strategic offensive air operations over the Japanese Home Islands
Japanese Archipelago
The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...
with the new B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
, which, during early 1944, was operating ineffectively from bases in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Bringing the superfortresses into the Central Pacific and stationing them in the Marianas would bring Japan within the range of the B-29, as well as provide the Twentieth Air Force
Twentieth Air Force
The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
with reliable means of support from the western ports of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Assaulted on July 24, 1944 by United States Marines from Saipan
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
, which had just been taken the previous month. After a fierce bombardment, the 4th Marine Division landed. The Japanese were taken by surprise, and the offensive was regarded as one of the best-executed amphibious operations of the war.
Once under American control, a massive construction project was begun on the north end of Tinian; nearly the entire northern end of the island was occupied by runways, nearly 11 miles of taxiways and the airfield area, along with the various support facilities and containment areas. The Ushi Point Airfield had been expanded with three 8000' runways involving the movement of nearly 1,000,000 cubic yards of earth and coral while 900,000 truck miles were absorbed. A fourth runway was constructed in May 1945. Hardstands built for 265 B-29 bombers. The four parallel 8,000 foot runways are oriented nearly east-west. North Field was, at the time, the largest airfield in the world.
North Field came under the command of Twentieth Air Force
Twentieth Air Force
The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
XXI Bomber Command
XXI Bomber Command
The XXI Bomber Command was a unit of the Twentieth Air Force in Guam for strategic bombing during World War II.- Lineage:* Constituted as XXI Bomber Command on 1 Mar 1944, and activated the same day.-Assignments:...
, with the 313th Bombardment Wing
313th Air Division
The 313th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Pacific Air Forces, based at Kadena AB, Okinawa. It was deactivated on 1 October 1991.-History:...
being the host unit at the expansive station. Its operational groups, the 6th
6th Air Mobility Wing
The United States Air Force's 6th Air Mobility Wing is the host wing for MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It is part of Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force....
(Circle R), 9th
9th Reconnaissance Wing
The 9th Reconnaissance Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Beale Air Force Base, California...
(Circle X), 504th
504th Bombardment Group
The 504th Bombardment Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It was inactivated on 15 June 1946....
(Circle E) and 505th Bombardment Group
505th Command and Control Wing
The United States Air Force's 505th Command and Control Wing is organized under the USAF Warfare Center. The 505th CCW is dedicated to improving warfighter readiness through integrated training, tactics development and testing for operational-level command and control of air, space and cyberspace...
s (Circle W) arrived in December 1944.
The four runways at North Field were lettered "A", "B", "C" and "D" from north to south. The 6th Group was parked on the south-side of Runway D, then going north the 9th Group was parked between C and D. The 504th between C and B, and the 505th on the south side of runway A. In addition, the B-29s were assigned specific hardstands for each aircraft so the ground crew could store spares and other items for each aircraft on them. The groups used the runway to the north side of their parking area hardstands, but this was not fast and firm, because if there was an accident and the runway was closed, the aircraft shifted to another runway.
Once in place, the groups of the 313th began flying missions, initially against Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
, the Truk Islands, and other Japanese held areas. Later, they flew low-level night incendiary raids
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
on area targets in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
; participated in mining operations in the Shimonoseki Strait, and contributed to the blockade of the Japanese Empire by mining harbors in Japan and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. In April 1945 the 313th assisted the invasion of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
by bombing Japanese airfields used by kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
pilots.
A fifth group, the 509th Composite Group
509th Composite Group
The 509th Composite Group was a United States Army Air Forces unit created during World War II, and tasked with operational deployment of nuclear weapons...
, was assigned to the wing in May 1945 from Wendover AAF
Wendover Air Force Base
Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. The 509th, although assigned to the 313th Bomb Wing, was operationally controlled by Headquarters, Twentieth Air Force
Twentieth Air Force
The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
. The 509th was given a base area near the airfield on the north tip of the island, several miles from the main installations in the center part of the island where the other groups were assigned. The 509th aircraft almost always used runway "A" and the aircraft were parked away from the other groups on the north side of the runway. Also unlike the other groups in the wing, the 509th used a wide variety of tail codes from various XXI Bomber Command groups, instead of using its own, so that the group's planes could not be identified by the Japanese. The 509th was also self contained, and drew little in resources from the 313th Wing or its other groups.
In early August, the mission of the 509th was revealed when the group flew the two Atomic Bomb missions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
. In November, the 509th was relieved from assignment to the 313th Bomb Wing and was reassigned to Roswell AAF, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
After the Japanese surrender in August, 313th Bomb Wing units dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners and participated in show-of-force flights over Japan. The units of the 313th Bombardment Wing were either reassigned or inactivated within a few months after the end of the Pacific War. The last USAAF unit, the 505th Bombardment Group, left North Field on June 30, 1946, ending its use as an operational airfield, and the airfield being closed on 30 March 1947.
With the withdrawal of American forces after the war, North Field was abandoned, and it has been disused since the war, other than for occasional exercises by the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
. Some abandoned B-29 hulks were left at the airfield after the war, but were melted down for scrap in the 1950s.
North Field today
Today North Field is abandoned and overgrown, and easily accessible a few miles traveling north of "San Jose" on "Broadway". The crushed coral runways are grayish and weathered-looking, but Runways Able and Baker and some of the taxiways remain drivable in an ordinary car, with only some weedy growth crawling out onto it here and there. Other than the runways, remains of former Japanese buildings and the preserved pits used to load the atomic bombs into their aircraft, nothing is left of the old facilities. The forest has grown right up to the edges of the runways and taxiways.See also
- Tinian International AirportTinian International AirportTinian International Airport , also known as West Tinian Airport, is a public airport located on Tinian Island in the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This airport is owned by Commonwealth Ports Authority.Although most U.S...
- USAAF in the Central PacificUnited States Army Air Forces in the Central Pacific AreaDuring World War II, the United States Army Air Forces engaged in combat against the Empire of Japan in the Central Pacific Area. As defined by the War Department, this consisted of most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, excluding the Philippines, Australia, the Netherlands East Indies, the...