FLIGHTPATH | 15carve an airfield complex, featuring two
runways, out of the jungle. Both were fin-
ished with a surface of crushed coral, with
the shorter of the two closer to the coast and
utilised by fighter aircraft, while the larger
runway further inland to the south was
used for bomber operations. The airfield
was identified by the Americans as a poten-
tial future base for offensive operations as
they moved north towards the Philippines.
Plans were drawn up for Operation Persecu-
tion, the primary aim of which was to seize
the airfield so it could be rehabilitated and
used by the Allies.
Between April 1943 and April 1944, the
complex was subject to a series of raids by
the Fifth Air Force to neutralise the offen-
sive threat posed by the airfield, but left the
runways cratered and unusable. When Op-
eration Persecution commenced on 22 April
1944, members of 62 Works Wing RAAF
landed shortly after the initial American
landings and made straight for the newly
captured fighter strip, commencing repair
works early in the afternoon. By nightfall
the entire area had been captured and, by
09:00 on 24 April, the fighter strip was con-
sidered to have been repaired enough to be
used (after almost 48 hours of continuous
works). Later that day, Curtiss Kittyhawks
of 78 Squad ron R A A F, f rom Cape Gloucester
in New Britain, became the first Allied air-
craft to land on the newly opened runway.
Despite this early success, poor drainage on
site was found to cause a significant hazard
to aircraft attempting to utilise the strip.
This problem was solved by laying down
steel matting, a process not completed until
28 April. Similar problems were encoun-
tered at the bomber strip which took even
longer to render serviceable. It was finally
declared stable enough to receive fighter
and transport aircraft in late May and bomb-
ers in July.
From that point until the end of the war
the airbase was utilised by several USAAF
and RAAF squadrons, but the primary role
of the airfield from the Australian perspec-
tive was its use as the centre for operations
against the Japanese by the DAP Beauforts
of 71 Wing RAAF. This initially included 8
and 100 Squadrons, but later involved 6, 7
and 15 Squadrons. Several RAAF support
units were also based at Tadji, including 12
Repair & Salvage Unit (12 RSU) which was
kept busy with a continual stream of dam-
aged and weary aircraft to attend to. Evi-
dence of their wartime work provided much
of what we went to the site to see.
Many RAAF personnel stayed on at the
base after the war, with several of the flying
units not returning to Australia until early- Upon leaving, both the USAAF and
RAAF abandoned any materiel considered
unnecessary to return home, including the
remains of many aircraft that were deemed
beyond economic repair and considered
surplus to post-war requirements.Tadji after the War
While many aircraft similarly abandoned
throughout New Guinea after the war fell
victim to the local scrap metal trade, remote
Tadji was left relatively undisturbed into
the 1970s due to the difficulty of gathering
up the remains of the aircraft to transport
to the smelter. As such, when first visited by
aviation enthusiasts and curious travellers
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, what re-
mained in the jungles outside of Aitape was
one of the best-preserved collections of
W.W.II aircraft left in New Guinea.
In 1974, this led to the large-scale salvage
works by Charles Darby for David Tallichet
that were made famous by Darby’s book Pa-
cific Aircraft Wrecks and Where to Find
Them (and the source of the author’s own
fascination with the wrecks of war in New
Guinea!). Several of the airframes recovered
during that salvage operation have been the
basis for well-known restorations, some of
which were completed to flying status, and
today aircraft recovered from Tadji form
components of heritage aviation collections
in Australia, New Zealand, the United States
and the United Kingdom.Welcome to Aitape
While the remains of the war left around
Aitape are certainly worth taking the op-
portunity to see, the location of the town
continues to provide a challenge to those
interested in viewing the aviation heritageLEFT: An overhead view of Beaufort A9-535 captured from the quadcopter drone. This angle provides a great means of
demonstrating the amount of the aircraft that remains and the general condition of the wreck. [D. Oakley]BELOW: Helpful locals cleaned some of the growth from the nose of this Beaufort to ind a warning stencil still visible.
Hints of the paintwork were observed under the lichen growth on all of the Beauforts at Tadji, with one of the travelling party
remarking that a few scrubbing brushes and some buckets of hot water would make identifying the aircraft a lot easier! [A. Matic]