The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Gasmata (150.33E 6.27S) is located on the south coast of New Britain just west of Thilenius Harbor. There was a grass airstrip here built for a nearby plantation, which had occasionally been used by the Royal Australian Air Force as a staging field. Elements of the Special Naval Landing Forces occupied the area on 9 February 1942, and Japanese engineers rapidly expanded the runway to 3200 feet (975 meters). However, no large air group was ever based here.
MacArthur's
headquarters planned to seize Gasmata as a preliminary to the Cape Gloucester landings, but eventually
Arawe was substituted instead. The Australians
reoccupied the airfield on 28 March 1944 and found it long abandoned by
the Japanese.
References
PacificWrecks.org (accessed 2010-4-27)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2010, 2013 by Kent G. Budge. Index
