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   Australian Army September 29, 1945 |
Location Lat 8° 25' 0" Long 126° 49' 0" Located on the coast roughly 3.5 miles WSW of Lautem on the northeast coast of East Timor. Known to the Japanese as "Lautem Airfield". Known to the Allies as "Lautem West Airfield". Prewar and during World War II part of Portuguese Timor. Today located in Dili Municipality in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Construction Built by the Japanese during late 1942. In operation by early January 1943. Wartime History Used by the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) as a base for bombers and reconnaissance aircraft for mission over Darwin, the Northern Territory and Western Australia portions of Australia. Also used by the Japanese Navy. By the middle of 1944, Allied bombing had rendered the airfield unusable and the remaining aircraft were moved to Kendari Airfield and other locations. Following the official surrender of Japanese forces on Timor, they destroyed most stores at the airfield and disabled their surviving aircraft before the arrival of Allied occupation forces. Japanese units based at Lautem 75th Sentai (Ki-48) 5th Sentai (Ki-45) 1943-1944 70th Dokuritsu Dai Shijugo Chutai (Independent Command Squadron) (Ki-46) c1943 American missions against Lautem March 12, 1943 - July 17, 1944 On September 11, 1945 the Japanese on Timor officially surrendered. During late September, Australian Army forces occupied the Lautem area and visited the airfield, where they discovered extensive stores, equipment and the wreckage of several aircraft including a L2D Tabby Tail ??-911, Ki-45 Nick and Ki-48 Lily. Possibly, all three aircraft and stores were deliberately destroyed or disabled by the Japanese to prevent them from being used by the Allies. Postwar Repaired, this airfield remained in use into the early 1980s servicing the Lautem area. Today No trace of the airfield is visible today. Apparently closed or developed as real estate, as no landing ground is visible in the area reported. References JAAF 3rd Air Army Flying Regulations for Air Fields, March 1943 Joint Army-Navy Agreement on Defensive Communications, East Indies Area, 5 October 1943 Index to Air Bases - Research Report No. 85, I.G. No 9185 - July 30, 1944 Indonesia pilot, Volume 2 page 193, 384 Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45 page 107 Thanks to Richard Dunn for additional information Contribute
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