West Field (Tinian)

West Field Gurguan Point Airfield
Part of Twentieth Air Force
West Field, Tinian, 8 July 1945
Type	Military airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1944
In use	1944-1946

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 was a base for Twentieth Air Force B-29 Superfortress operations against the Japanese Home Islands in 1944–5, and the base for the B-29 Superfortress 58th Bombardment Wing.

Tinian, with its sister islands of the Marianas, had passed through Spanish and German hands prior to becoming a Protectorate of Japan following World War I. Under Japanese administration, Tinian was largely a sugar plantation. The island had two good airfields with a third under construction by the Japanese in 1944. West Field originated as the Japanese Gurguan Point Airfield, having two parallel runways.

By mid-1944, the Americans had advanced inside the Japanese ring of defense in the Pacific Theater. On Tinian, the United States Army Air Forces could establish bases to conduct long-range strategic offensive air operations over the Japanese Home Islands with the new B-29 Superfortress, Assaulted on July 24, 1944 by United States Marines from Saipan, which had just been taken the previous month. After a fierce bombardment, the 4th Marine division landed. The Japanese were taken by surprise, and the offensive was regarded as one of the best-executed amphibious operation of the war.

Once under American control, a massive construction project was begun on the island, and the Japanese airfield was repaired and expanded, being named as West Field due to its geographical location. West Field became operationally ready in the early spring of 1945, and the Twentieth Air Force XXI Bomber Command 58th Bombardment Wing was assigned to the field, being reassigned from Hijli Base Area, India.

...
Wikipedia