Us Official Photographs

Ground forces at Hollandia airdromes

Ground forces on one of the Hollandia airdromes take a good look at the job of reconstruction they have ahead of them. The huge craters in the foreground and along the runway indicate the thoroughness with which the 5th Air Force softened up Hollandia for invasion with attacks on March 30 and 31, 1944. The shattered Jap planes in this photograph are but two of 219 destroyed in the two raids. This picture was taken on April 27, 1944 from a Consolidated B-24 which had just dropped its cargo of supplies by parachute along the dispersal area and pocked runway.