Alexishafen
Madang

This is the site of a Japanese airfield used for fighters and bombers. Large bomb craters are evident of the punishment it recieved from the air. After Australian troops recaptured the area, the field was never repaired or used and since the Japanese has lay deralict. There were many aircraft hulks at Alexishafen, but over the years some have been recovered, scrapped or otherwise destroyed.

Despite this, there is a facinating wreck, easily accessable at the end of the strip in its dispersal area. It is a Japanese Ki 49 Helen bomber, remarkably intact, and probably one of the last examples of this type left in the world.

Sadly, the wreck has endured many changes since when I first visitied it in 1993. At that time, the wreck was in excellent contidion. Both wings were intact and markings like the hinomaru still visible.

Today, this wreck has become the victim of scarpping and neglagence. In very recent years, more damage has occured on this wreck than it had in the previous fifty years since the war! The wings are missing - completly gone, and I fear scrapped or souvineered. The remains of the shattered nose, likely blown apart by a parafrag bomb were no where to be found. The corosion on the skin was much higher, possibly from more sunlight due to being cleared off. And, there was a gaping hole in the fuselage where a tree impacted to plane.

Photographic Archive
Despite the dissapointments about this bomber's deterioration in the year 2000, very little damage was noted from 1944 to 1993.

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