Located 10 miles east of Gasmata. Occupied by the Japanese and used as a forward naval and seaplane base with limited facilities. Abandoned in March 1943.

Father Benson recalls in Prisoner's Base and Home Again in January 1943:
"Lindenhafen was beautiful, and apart from a single damaged ship in the harbor, there was little trace of the war." and on returning from Gona "Early that afternoon we arrived back at Lindenhafen. Dispersed around the harbor perimeter were eight warships: out escort dash for Lae. There were two cruisers and six destroyers." and on returned from their failed sortie to Lae "Fire and smoke were from one of the cruisers which was being towed in by five or six vessels, it took her over an hour to drag herself the half-dozen miles into Lindenhafen. She was an old four funneled cruiser. As she passed abreast of us, I could see that her two central funnels had been skittled and in between was a vast yard of jagged masses of twisted steel. Behind her limped a destroyer, with decks awash, but just sufficient way on her to stagger on to a sandbank. Later that morning, Ishii discovered that this cruiser and destroyer together with ours were the only survivor from the squadron that had left Lindenhafen the night before. And our vessel was the only warship not hit by a bomb, although we had suffered a good few casualties from machine-gunning and from near misses. No wonder the destroyer's crew called their ship the 'Lucky Lady'".

Author Lex McAulay adds:
"On 6 Jan 43 air recon sighted four transports, a cruiser and four destroyers heading from Rabaul to Lae; attacks were made abd hits scored on one transport by a night-raid PBY and Nichiryu Maru was sunk. The ships reached Lae and attacks were made on them as they unloaded and one was beached [Myoko Maru].

As the ships were returning from Lae, a night torpedo attack was made and the RAAF Beaufort crew of Flight Lieutenant C.S. Hamblin saw a heavy explosion on the 'cruiser' (their impression of the ship) that was their target. No sign of the ship could be found next morning, and quite possibly this is the ship Benson refers to. The damaged destroyer with decks awash as he described it probably was hit in the attacks also.

At this stage I do not have any positive identification of the ships, but for 10 January the US Strategic Bombing Survey volume 'The Campaigns of the Pacific War' lists destroyer Hatsukaze damaged by a torpedo hit under the wardroom on port side and was 'seriously damaged' . Given that some destroyers were quite large by Western standards, at night one could be identified as a cruiser. The book also lists on 14 January destroyer Noshiro damaged near Kavieng with one direct hit and five near misses. Two other destroyers were listed with damage at the same place and date. So Benson could have seen these ships at Lindenhafen."

American Missions Against Linderhafen
October 13 - March 18, 1943

October 13, 1943
(5th AF) B-24's hit Lindenhafen

March 18, 1943
PT-150 and PT 192 both investigated this harbor on March 18, 1943 fired at shore defenses and a storage tank, and found its defenses abandoned.

Aichi E13A1 Jake
Sunk upside down

F1M2 Pete
On the reef, broken up. Likely made a forced landing and destroyed. 5-10m of water.

Unknown Twin Engine Wreck
This wreck is reportedly a 'twin engined seaplane wreck', sunk right the Lindenhafen jetty, where it was moored. Possibly an Aichi H9A1, a very rare twin engined seaplane, only 31 were built.

Rod Pearce adds:
"Back in the 1960's, I had a friend who worked at the plantation there. He told me about a twin engined wreck there, that looked like a PBY Catalina and was completly intact. In 1974-5 an Australian bomb disposals crew blew it up as bombs were aboard."

Ablingi
To the west of Lindenhafen, Zero in 60'

Fulleborn Harbor
Harbor 25 miles east of Gasmata. Patrolled by PT-143 on March 16/17, 1943.