Prewar

Circa 1943

September 9, 1943

November 18, 1943

Justin Taylan 2000

Justin Taylan 2003

Location
Located at south-east of Wewak Point, parallel to the coastline. This area was also known as Wirui.

Construction
A small airfield was built at this location in 1937 by the Australian administration and Catholic church, to provide air service to the Wewak area.

Japanese Usage
Occupied by the Japanese Army on December 18, 1942 when about 2,000 troops and supplies at Wewak and Wirui.

The first Japanese aircraft to arrive at the strip was a detachment of A6M2 Zeros from the Junyo, commanded by Lt Cdr Takashi Hashiguch.   They used the strip while it was still in its civilian configuration. While based in Wewak for convoy protection. They left on January 25, 1943. And another Zero detachment from the Zuiho arrived in February 1943, then departed for Rabaul.

Meanwhile, the 117th Airfield Construction Battalion worked on expanding and improving the airfield to become 4,000' long (as of October 19, 1943). Over a hundred revetments were built, fifteen for bombers to the NW towards the Wewak peninsula and 88 revetments to the SE for fighters (as of October 19, 1943)

Japanese Navy Units Based At Wewak
117th Airfield Survey & Construction Battalion Dec 18, 1942 - ?
Junyō Detachment (A6M2) Jan 17-25, 1943
Zuihō Detachment (A6M2) February 1943 then to Rabaul
Japanese Army Units Based At Wewak
45th Sentai (Ki-48)
14th Sentai (Ki-21)

Tetsuo Watanabe Naval Land Unit, page 56:
"May 4, 1944 The Wewak Airfield was a frightful spectacle. It was totally destroyed by bombardment. Similarly countless remains of out ships were lying in the harbor."

Today
The field is abandoned since the war. A road runs overtop the former runway. Some bomb craters still pot marked the area and a few bits of aircraft wreckage are in the area, that have not been scrapped over the decades since the war. Since it is located nearest to town, it has been heavily picked over in the decades and the few traces of the war remain.

References
The Catholic church publication "A Brief History of Wewak" talks about the construction of this strip pre-war. Thank to Richard Dunn for additional information.

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