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Chakulia Airfield | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Owner | Airports Authority of India (AAI) | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Jamshedpur,Kharagpur | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Chakulia, Jharkhand | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 129 m / 423 ft | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 22°28′00.49″N086°42′38.52″E / 22.4668028°N 86.7107000°E /22.4668028; 86.7107000 | ||||||||||||||
| Website | Chakulia Airport | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Chakulia Airport is an airport inIndia. It is located southwest ofChakulia, a town and anotified area inPurbi Singhbhum district in the state ofJharkhand.
Currently, the airport has no scheduledcommercial airline flights. In 2006, it was reported that the airport has been non-operational since it served duringWorld War II.[1]
Chakulia Airfield was built by theBritish Construction Contractor Mr. Digar Pramotha Nath Mohanty by Das & Mohanty construction company in 1942 to conduct raids against theadvancing Japanese in Burma and also for operations to transport aid to parts of China. It was originally designed forConsolidated B-24 Liberator use. It was initially assigned toUnited States Army Air ForcesTenth Air Force, with the22nd Bombardment Squadron of341st Bombardment Group arriving on 30 December 1942, equipped withB-25 Mitchells. Three of the Group's squadrons (22d,491st Bombardment Squadron from Chakulia and490th Bombardment Squadron from Kurmitola) flew missions from bases in India, chiefly against enemy transportation in centralBurma. The group bombed bridges, locomotives, railroad yards, and other targets to delay movement of supplies to the Japanese troops fighting in northern Burma. The 341st Bombardment Group, and its 22nd and 491st Squadrons, transferred to14th Air Force in December 1943 and moved to China in January 1944.
In addition, the9th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, assigned to Headquarters, Tenth Air Force, flewF-4/F-5 (P-38) Lighting photo recon missions over Burma between 30 November 1942 – 3 January 1943. A detachment of the118th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron returned to the base, flying reconnaissance flights over Burma between March–June 1944
In December 1944, the 341st Bomb Group moved to China and the airfield was designated as aB-29 Superfortress Base for the planned deployment of theXX Bomber Command to India. Advance Army Air Forces echelons arrived in India in December 1943 to organize the upgrading of the airfield and thousands of Indians labored to upgrade the facility for Superfortress operations. It was one of four B-29 bases established by the Americans in India.
Chakulia was designated to be the home of the40th Bombardment Group, with initially five B-29 Squadrons (25th,29th,44th,45th and395th). The 40th arrived at the base on 2 April 1944 after completing B-29 transition training atPratt AAF,Kansas. Support elements of the group included the 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th Bomb Maintenance Squadrons; the 11th Photo Lab, and the 28th Air Service Group.
It had taken nearly two weeks for the group to arrive at Chakulia from Kansas, deploying over the South Atlantic transport route. The deployment consisted of traveling to Morrison Field,Florida, then south through theCaribbean toNatal, Brazil. From Brazil the South Atlantic was crossed arriving inWest Africa and re-assembling atMarrakesh, Morocco. The group then flew north and west from Morocco throughAlgeria andEgypt, before arriving at Karachi. By the time the group arrived at Chakulia, the month-long trip had taken its toll on the aircraft and personnel. Also, when the group arrived, the conditions at the base were poor, and the runways were still in the process of being lengthened when the first B-29s arrived.
In addition to the 40th, its command unit, the58th Bombardment Wing temporarily took up residence at Chakulia on 2 April until its designated command base atKalaikunda Airfield was ready. The 58th's headquarters was moved on 23d April.
Almost immediately upon arrival, the groups B-29s were grounded due to engine fires, which were caused by the engines not being designed to operate at ground temperatures higher than 115 degrees F, which were typically exceeded in India. Modifications had to be made to the engines and also to the cowl flaps. After these modifications, B-29 flights were resumed.
From India, the 40th Bomb Group planned to fly missions againstJapan from airfields inChina.Hsinching Airfield (A-1), located just to the southwest ofChengdu in south-central China was designated as the forward staging base for the group.
However, all the supplies of fuel, bombs, and spares needed to support operations from Kwanghan had to be flown 1,200 miles from India over "The Hump" (the name given by Allied pilots to the eastern end of theHimalayan Mountains), since Japanese control of the seas around the Chinese coast made seaborne supply of China impossible. Many of the supplies had to be delivered to China by the B-29s themselves. For this role, they were stripped of nearly all combat equipment and used as flying tankers and each carried seven tons of fuel for the six-hour (one way) flight, which itself was almost at the limit of the B-29's range. The Hump route was so dangerous and difficult that each time a B-29 flew from India to China it was counted as a combat mission. It took six round-trip flights by each Superfortress to Kwanghan in order to mount one combat mission from the forward base.
The first combat mission by the group took place on June 5, 1944, when squadrons of the 40th took off from India to attack the Makasan railroad yards atBangkok,Thailand. This involved a 2261-mile round trip, the longest bombing mission yet attempted during the war.
On June 15 the group participated in the first American Air Force attack on theJapanese Home Islands since theDoolittle raid in 1942. Operating from bases in India, and at times staging through fields in China, the group struck such targets as transportation centers, naval installations, iron works, and aircraft plants inBurma,Thailand,China,Japan,Indonesia, andFormosa, receiving aDistinguished Unit Citation for bombing iron and steel works atYawata, Japan, on August 20, 1944. From a staging field inCeylon, the 40th mined waters near the port ofPalembang,Sumatra, in August 1944.
The 40th evacuated staging fields in China in January 1945 due to the Japanese offensive in South China which threatened the forward staging bases, but continued operations from India, bombing targets inThailand and mining waters aroundSingapore. However, by late 1944 it was becoming apparent that B-29 operations against Japan staged out of the bases in Chengtu were far too expensive in men and materials and would have to be stopped. In December 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff made the decision that Operation Matterhorn would be phased out, and the B-29s would be moved to newly captured bases in the Marianas in the central Pacific.
On 25 February 1945, the 40th Bombardment Group flew south toCeylon, then southeast across theIndian Ocean toPerth inWestern Australia. Flying north throughNew Guinea, it reached its new home atWest Field,Tinian, in theMariana Islands on 4 April where it and its parent58th Bombardment Wing came under the command of the newXXI Bomber Command.
With the departure of the B-29s in March 1945 to the Marianas, Chakulia Airfield was returned toTenth Air Force. It was kept, however, largely in reserve status, with the 28th Service Group performing caretaker activities, with the occasional aircraft transiting the airfield.
With the last Americans leaving in late 1945, the airfield was turned over to the British colonial government. The postwar history of the airfield is unclear, however it is used today as a civil airport. The large, sprawling wartime airfield is largely in disrepair, with abandoned hardstands and taxiways visible on aerial images.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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