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West Field is a former World War II airfield on Tinian in the Mariana Islands.Today, West Field is used as the civilian Tinian International Airport.West Field at Tinian Naval Base was a base for Twentieth Air Force B-29 Superfortress operations against the Japanese Home Islands in 1944–45 and the base for the B-29 Superfortress 58th Bombardment Wing.
The airport was established on the site of the World War II era West Field. Tinian International Airport covers an area of 1,416 acres (573 ha) which contains one paved runway (8/26) measuring 8,600 x 150 ft (2,621 x 46 m). [1]
Today, the four runways at North Field are overgrown and abandoned. A five-year, $409 million contract has been awarded in 2024 to upgrade the North Field. One of the two West Field runways remains in use as part of Tinian International Airport. [12]
Tinian is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, some 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) west of Hawaii in the Pacific. Only about 3,000 people live ...
Tinian Island in 1945: the vast North Field airfield is in the foreground with West Field beyond; the rest of the island is filled with barracks, buildings, and hangars. The task would have been easier if the plateau had been wider. As it was, the 7,000-foot (2,100 m) wide plateau required large amounts of fill.
On Tinian, the SeaBees built the largest bomber base ever, North Field. The 6th Naval Construction Brigade built four 8500-foot runways for the 313th Bombardment Wing, and all required infrastructure; then went to the west end of the island and at West Field laid down two 8500-foot runways for the 58th Bombardment Wing. [3]
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces fought the Empire of Japan in the Central Pacific Area. As defined by the War Department, this consisted of most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, excluding the Philippines, Australia, the Netherlands East Indies, the Territory of New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago) the Solomon Islands and areas to the south and east of the ...
B-29 taking off from Chakulia, June 1944 [note 3] B-29 on an unfinished airfield in China, 1944 [note 4] B-29s of the 462d Bomb Group West Field, Tinian. After much effort, the headquarters of the XX Bomber Command had been established at the former RAF Kharagpur Airfield, India on 28 March 1944 under the command of General Wolfe. The first B ...