c1944

March 30, 1944

March 31, 1944

September 15, 1944



c1944-5 via Rocker

October 1946

Location
Located in roughly the center of Peleliu Island.

Construction
Built by the Japanese, the airfield had a pair of intersecting runways with taxiways and ravetments. Used until the Marine assault on the island.

Japanese Units Based at Peleliu (partial list)
263rd Kokutai (Zero) Matsuyama February 29, 44 - March 24, 44 Guam

American & Japanese Missions Against Peleliu
June 9, 1944 - November 29, 1944

Battlefield
The entire airfield became a battlefield when the Marines landed on Peleliu on September 15, 1944. On the first day of the Marine assault, the southern portion of the airfield was captured. By D+2 the entire airfield area was liberated, and the battle moved to the ridges.

American Usage
After liberation, the airfield was quickly repaired it became an American airbase. In December 1944, the two runways measured 6,000' x 300' and 3,900' x 260'. A PBY that took off from Peleliu in August 3, 1945 was the first to locate survivors of the USS Indianapolis a week after it was sunk.

Don Huebner recalls:
"I remember most vividly one an F-4F Wildcat that bellied in on the Jap held airfield while we were landing. When I saw it a day or so later the American pilot was slumped over just as he died. The pilot had evidently done a dead stick landing and was shot in the temple as he slid to a stop. In those years it was vogue to wear aluminum watch bands or bracelets made from material torn off crashed aircraft...ours or theirs. Some of the guys, usually Seabees were very talented at etching pretty patterns into the shiny metal. Near that plane was a very strange sight also. On one of our stretchers there was a dead Jap, he was dressed in our Marine uniform and had a medical tag on a button telling of the frontline treatment I suppose. Evidently he had gotten on that pad during the night and hoped to be carried back inside our lines to "do his number" on unsuspecting medics. They had a pungent odor and he was recognized immediately and shot on the spot."

American Units Based at Peleliu (parital list)
7th Air Force
28th PRS (F-5) Kwajalein Sept 24, 44 - April 1, 45 Saipan
USMC
VMF(N)-541 (F6F-3N) Sept 24, 1944 - ?
MABS-1 from Munda May 45

Today
The strip is still in operation for light aircraft only.