Kenitra Air Base
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Kenitra Air Base [مطار القنيطرة Third Royal Air Force Base |
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Moroccan Army and Navy | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Kenitra, Morocco | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 16 ft / 5 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°17′56″N 006°35′45″W / 34.29889°N 6.59583°W | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
 Kenitra
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Source: DAFIF
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Kenitra Air Base (Arabic: [كنيترا] مطار) (IATA: NNA, ICAO: GMMY) is a military airport in Kenitra, a city in the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region in Morocco. It is also known as the Third Royal Air Force Base, operated by the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
Kenitra Air Base was previously known as Craw Field, named for Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Demas T. Craw, USAAF, who was killed while attempting to deliver a message from American General Lucian Truscott to the Vichy French Commander at Port Lyautey requesting that the French surrender. Although imprisoned, Craw's interpreter, Major Pierpont Hamilton, a descendant of Alexander Hamilton, negotiated the French surrender during Operation Torch and the airport was eventually secured for the Allied forces. Pierpont Hamilton also received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
The air base at Port Lyautey served as a staging area for many Allied operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) during World War II. The United States Navy (USN) Fleet Air Wing 15 and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) 480th Antisubmarine Group were based there with specialized aircraft including PBY Catalinas, B-24 Liberators, and Goodyear-built K-ships (blimps) used to search for German U-Boats in the Atlantic Ocean and especially in the shallow waters of the Straits of Gibraltar where radar and magnetic anomaly detection were viable.
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