Gusap Airport

IATA: GAP – ICAO: AYGP – LID:

Gusap
Airport

Gusap
Airport (Papua New Guinea)

Summary

Airport type

Public

Location

Gusap, Papua New Guinea

Elevation AMSL

1,450 ft / 442 m

Coordinates

06°03′12.93″S 145°57′37.23″E / 6.0535917°S 145.9603417°E

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
03/21	5,250	1,600	Grass

Source: World Aero Data

Gusap Airport is a general aviation airport in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. (IATA: GAP) located at the base of the Finisterre Range. It has no scheduled commercial airline service.

History

Gusap Airport was built by US Army engineers of the 871st, 872nd and 875th Airborne Aviation Engineer Battalions during World War II, and was developed into major base consisting of ten airstrips and numerous facilities for fighters and light bombers of the Fifth Air Force. Later during the war, the airfield was also a base for Royal Australian Air Force aircraft. The base was built around eight grass runways, with 180 revetments in the complex. The airstrip at Gusap "paid for itself many times over in the quantity of Japanese aircraft, equipment and personnel destroyed by Allied attack missions projected from it."^[1]

Allied units assigned to Gusap Airfield

Headquarters, 85th Fighter Wing (25 February-24 July 1944)
Headquarters, 310th Bombardment Wing (1 February-6 May 1944)
312th Bombardment Group (1 January–June 1944)

Headquarters, 386th, 387th, 388th, 389th Bomb Squadrons, A-20 Havoc

35th Fighter Group (7 February-22 July 1944)

Headquarters, 39th, 41st Fighter Squadrons, P-47 Thunderbolt

49th Fighter Group (20 November 1943 – 19 April 1944)

Headquarters, 7th, 8th, 9th Fighter Squadrons, P-40 Warhawk (1943), P-47 Thunderbolt (1944)

Notes

↑ Casey 1951, pp. 171–172

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
www.pacificwrecks.com

External links

USAAF Fifth Air Force in World War II

Previously: Philippine Department Air Force (1941); Far East Air Force (1941-1942)

Airfields

Pacific	USAAF in Australia USAAF in the Southwest Pacific USAAF in Okinawa

Units

Commands

Wings

Groups

Air Commando	3d Air Commando

Bombardment	3d Bombardment 7th Bombardment 19th Bombardment 22d Bombardment 27th Bombardment 38th Bombardment 43d Bombardment 90th Bombardment 312th Bombardment 345th Bombardment 380th Bombardment 417th Bombardment

Combat Cargo	2d Combat Cargo

Fighter	8th Fighter 24th Pursuit 35th Fighter 49th Fighter 58th Fighter 348th Fighter 475th Fighter

Reconnaissance	6th Reconnaissance 71st Reconnaissance

Troop Carrier	317th Troop Carrier 374th Troop Carrier 375th Troop Carrier 433d Troop Carrier

Squadrons

Bombardment	31st Bombardment

Night Fighter	418th Night Fighter 421st Night Fighter 547th Intelligence

Reconnaissance	2d Observation 8th Photographic Reconnaissance 36th Photographic Reconnaissance

Troop Carrier	21st Troop Carrier 22d Troop Carrier 65th Troop Carrier 66th Troop Carrier

United States Army Air Forces

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