Description
Title: Corunna Downs – The Invisible WW2 Airfield
Author: Cafarella, Antonio
Condition: Near Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1998
ISBN: 0958620911
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 44 pages
Comments: A detailed history on the secret airfield near Marble Bar that the author served time at during World War 2.
Corunna Downs was a secret airfield located in scrub and spinifex country, about 16 kms south west of Marble Bar in “The Pilbara” area of Western Australia.
73 OBU operated the Corunna Downs airfield which comprised two intersecting bitumen runways. One ran approximately north-south, 5,000 feet in length while the other ran approximately east-west, 7,000 feet in length. Both runways were approximately 150 feet wide. A 50 foot wide taxiway linked the northern end of the north-south runway to the western end of the east-west runway. Approximately 20 camouflaged revetments to disperse aircraft to minimise bomb damage were constructed at Corunna Downs.
American and Australian Air Force units operated out of Corunna Downs airfield during WW2. They included 25 Squadron (City of Perth) RAAF and the 380th Bomb Group of the American 5th Air Force. They carried out numerous bombing raids on Japanese bases and shipping.
