Port Moresby Airfield Complex | |
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Port Moresby, New Guinea | |
Coordinates | 09°26′36″S 147°13′12″E / 9.44333°S 147.22000°E |
Site history | |
Built | 1942 |
In use | 1942-1945 |
Battles/wars | Battle of New Guinea |
Garrison information | |
Garrison | USAAF Fifth Air Force Royal Australian Air Force |
The Port Moresby Airfield Complex was a World War II military airfield complex, built near Port Moresby in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. It was used during the Battle of New Guinea as a base of Allied air operations primarily in 1942 and early 1943. It later became a support base as the battle moved to the north and western part of New Guinea. It was closed and the facility turned over to civil authorities after the end of the War in September 1945.
This complex of airfields is historically significant as it was from these airfields that the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces supported Allied ground forces in the Battle of New Guinea. It represented the changing fortunes of war in the Pacific and the end of the Japanese expansion in the Southwestern Pacific during World War II.