GUAM - Harmon AFB

[jdvoss]

Guam, USA: Former Harmon AFB

Attached are two photos that I took of former Harmon AFB on the island of Guam. The field was developed during WWII as a maintnence base for the B-29's that were located on nearby island bases of Tinian, Saipan and of course Guam. It was also known as "Depot Field" and it was located just a few hundred yards to the NW of Agana Naval Air Station. The area has now been redeveloped and no signs of the field exist except for a couple of B-29 hardstands.

[PNK]

Did some of the B-29 fields have parallel runways?

[Dave Smith]

Yes, four!

[jdvoss]

Yes, all the the B-29 bases had multiple parallel runways. If you do a google.earth scan of Guam, Tinian and Saipan you can still see the fields. I've attached a photo of former North Field AAB of Tinian. Yes, this is the very base where B-29's "Enola Gay" and "Bocks Car" took off for the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945

[REF]

Great photos, when were they taken?

Four parallel runways!! That must have been very busy!!

[TommyUSA]

Great photos, when were they taken?

Four parallel runways!! That must have been very busy!!

Also hard to shut down. A bombing or strafing run might disable one or two runways, but if you still have two more open...

Tommy

[jdvoss]

North Field on Tinian held the 313th Bombardment Wing which was composed 265 B-29's! I often wondered how many B-29's were laying in the ocean just off the end of the runways. I visited the area in the mid-1960's but looking at th google.earth images it really hasn't changed that much...just more jungle growth. As a point of interest the B-29 fields all had 8000 foot runways (nearly 2500 meters). They specified multiple runways so in the case that a returning B-29 crashed on the runway the field wouldn't be shut down with 100's of aircraft coming in right behind him.