Us Official Photographs

Airfield Establishment At Salerno

Establishment of airfields was of first importance at Salerno, Italy. Just one mile from the beach, aviation engineers selected two adjoining farms for conversion into an emergency landing field. Bulldozers cleaned off the trees and a fast job with pick axes helped level off the new runway. First to use the field were two P-38s which came in exactly 24 hours after the cotton and wheat fields were taken over by aviation engineers.