From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Airport in Sichuan, China
Guanghan Airport
(
Chinese
:
??机?
) (
IATA
:
GHN
,
ICAO
:
ZUGH
) is an airport southeast of
Guanghan
,
Sichuan
, China. Formerly a military airfield known as
Kwanghan Airfield
(A-3) during World War II. It is now used by
Civil Aviation Flight University of China
for pilot training and has no commercial flights.
History
[
edit
]
During
World War II
, the airfield was the forward staging base for the
444th Bombardment Group
, which carried out
B-29 Superfortress
raids on the
Japanese Home Islands
.
In 1943, The
United States Army Air Force
was given rights to use the airfield to stage bombing missions from
India
to attack Japan.
[1]
It was one of four B-29 bases established by the Americans in China.
The USAAF
444th Bombardment Group
(Very Heavy) flew missions from the airfield beginning in mid-June 1944. The group had to transport its supplies of fuel, bombs, and spare parts from its base at
Dudhkundi
, India over "
The Hump
" (the name given by Allied pilots to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains), since Japanese control of the seas around the Chinese coast made seaborne supply of China impossible. The first mission was carried out on the night of June 14/15, 1944 against the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata on
Kyushu
. This plant was considered to be the most important single objective within Japan's steel industry, and had long held top priority for the first strike. It was the first time since the
Doolittle raid
of 1942 that American aircraft had bombed the Japanese home islands.
[1]
In addition to the bombers, the USAAF
81st Fighter Group
used the airfield, flying
P-40 Warhawk
and
P-47 Thunderbolt
fighters as part of the
Fourteenth Air Force
"Flying Tigers".
[2]
The 81st provided close air support for
Chinese Army
ground forces fighting the Japanese, as well as flying escort missions for the B-29s over the Japanese-occupied area of China. In January 1945 the B-29 bombers were moved back to India before transferring in April to the newly captured bases in the
Mariana Islands
. In February, the fighters were moved to a new airfield near
Fungwansham
.
[2]
With the departure of the Americans, the much-improved airfield was then returned to Chinese authorities.
[1]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
This article incorporates
public domain material
from the
Air Force Historical Research Agency
- ^
a
b
c
Craven, Wesley Frank; James Lea Cate. "Vol. V: The Pacific: MATTERHORN to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945". The Army Air Forces in World War II. U.S. Office of Air Force History.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/V/index.html
.
- ^
a
b
Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History.
ISBN
0-89201-092-4
.
External links
[
edit
]
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