Location
Lat 4° 58' 0S Long 151° 18' 0E.  Located at Sule on the northern coast of New Britai near Mt. Uluwan, to the north east of Ubili and Ulamona. Allied documents refer to this airfield as 'Ubili Airfield'.

Construction
Built by the Japanese Navy in the middle of 1943, a single runway running roughly east to west.

Wartime History
F-5 "Eager Beaver" 42-13073 piloted by Fred Hargesheimer observed a 'new airfield' at this location on June 5, 1943 before it was shot down.

The School That Fell From the Sky, page 35-36:
"Off to the right, I spotted what looked like the construction of a new airfield. I leveled off and circled the area for a better look. The least I could do was shoot a set of pictures and let the photo interpreters back at the base decide if this was an important field. I carefully lined up for a low-altitude pass over what looked like a runway and set the camera intervelometer for a series of overlapping pictures."

Used by the Japanese during the war to a limited capacity. It is unlikely any aircraft were based here, but probably used the runway occasionally for refueling or emergency landings in the middle 1943 period, before being abandoned.

Today
Still in use today for light aircraft only

Ray Fairfield adds:
"That was the wartime strip running down to the water, AFAIK. The Sally tail was just next to the strip, and two Zero carcasses, in very poor shape, in the bush at the inland end. Again, only one short visit."

John Douglas adds:
"I visited this strip in 2000. There was a sawmill nearby. Only found a piece of wreckage, no intact wrecks. I have been there twice. I've never explored it properly though. There is some Japanese undercarriage parts at the landward end, little else. I've never met any locals who knew what was there."

Cecilie Benjamin adds:
"Sule is not used these days (perhaps for small aircraft for the logging)."

References
Thanks to Richard Dunn and Ray Fairfield for additional information

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009