Central Pacific Air Route

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi all, 12 September 1941, nine B-17s of the 14th Bombardment Squadron landed in Clark Field, Philippines after completing the last leg of the Central Pacific Air Route. They had left Hamilton Field, just outside San Francisco on 5th September, flying to Hickam Field, Hawaii, then onto Midway and then Wake Islands. They then flew onto Port Moresby, then Darwin, before completing the journey to the Philippines.

Sources

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1951/07/what-happened-at-clark-field/639484/

The Fall of the Philippines-Chapter 3

among others.

However, I didn't think Port Moresby was developed sufficiently for B-17s, and it has been suggested that they flew direct from Wake to Clark Field. Can anyone confirm which route they took?

 

[EwenS]

More likely Wake to Guam to Clark Field. That was certainly the Pan Am routing in 1941.

Pan Am Historical Foundation

Canton Island: Pan Am's Critical stop-over in the Pacific. Canton remained pivotal as a technical stop on the way to Australia and New Zealand. R.E.G. Davies maps. As long as aircraft range and payload restrictions demanded places to put down for fuel, Canton remained part of the world’s airway...

www.panam.org

I think Port Moresby came later.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/SPAFR-1916-1942.jpg

 

[EwenS]

Hi all, 12 September 1941, nine B-17s of the 14th Bombardment Squadron landed in Clark Field, Philippines after completing the last leg of the Central Pacific Air Route. They had left Hamilton Field, just outside San Francisco on 5th September, flying to Hickam Field, Hawaii, then onto Midway and then Wake Islands. They then flew onto Port Moresby, then Darwin, before completing the journey to the Philippines.

Sources

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1951/07/what-happened-at-clark-field/639484/

The Fall of the Philippines-Chapter 3

among others.

However, I didn't think Port Moresby was developed sufficiently for B-17s, and it has been suggested that they flew direct from Wake to Clark Field. Can anyone confirm which route they took?

I take it back. I don't think that there was an airfield on Guam before the Japanese invasion in Dec 1941. Pan Am were operating their Clipper flying boat service on that route in the 1930s and up to the outbreak of WW2.

It seems that the 14th BS of the 19th BG did deploy via Port Moresby in Sept 1941. The details of the journey can be found here from p177 onwards. The route was US-Hawaii-Midway-Wake-Port Moresby- Darwin- Clark Field.

HyperWar: The Army Air Forces in WWII: Vol. I--Plans & Early Operations [Chapter 5]

'The Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. I--Pans & Early Operations' (Chapter 5).

www.ibiblio.org

But note this route meant flying over Japanese mandated Pacific Islands on the Wake - Port Moresby leg. That led to development of the South Pacific Route.

The airfield at Port Moresby was built pre-war (still looking for exactly when but Air mail services were leaving Port Moresby for other places in New Guinea from 1932 and in July/Aug 1934 and Australia-Port Moresby Service was begun) with 2 parallel runways. Later known as 7 Mile Drome and then Jackson Field. This page has a photo of the B-17s there in Sept 1941.

Pacific Wrecks - 7 Mile Drome (Jackson Airport) National Capital District, Papua New Guinea

7 Mile Drome (Jackson Airport) is located roughly seven miles to the northeast of Port Moresby inland from the southern coast of New Guinea.

pacificwrecks.com

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force, 1939–1942 (1st edition, 1962)

www.awm.gov.au

RAAF Official History, Chapter 8, page 181

On 5th September [1941] nine Fortresses, flown by members of No . 14 Bombardment Squadron and commanded by Major Emmett O'Donnell Jnr, took off on the first stage of the trans-Pacific flight—from Honolulu to Midway Island, 1,132 nautical miles. The next day's flight was to Wake Island, 1,035 miles distant and then the formation flew south-west to Port Moresby, a distance of 2,176 miles . On this stage, they passed over the Japanese-held Caroline Islands by night at 26,000 feet without navigation lights and in radio silence to avoid "international incident". On 8th September the Fortresses reached Port Moresby where the crews rested for two days, and were welcomed by R.A.A.F. and other service and civil officers, whose interest in the flight was intense. The next stage of 934 miles to Darwin was traversed in six hours and a half. On 12th September the final stage, from Darwin to Manila (1,702 miles) was flown in part through tropical storms which forced the bombers down to a few hundred feet above the sea . They arrived safely at Clark Field, near Manila, in a heavy rain storm.

 

[Buz101]

Final closing of the loop.

Unit History (A.50 Sheets) for RAAF Darwin - "10th Sep 1941 - 9 United States B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber Arrived from Port Moresby" then you have "12th Sep 1941 - 9 United States B-17 Flying Fortresses depart from Darwin"

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Thank you guys, Wake to Port Moresby to Darwin to Clark Field it was