Review by Daniel
Leahy. During the beginning phase of the Pacific war, the RAAF and
USAAF set up a large number of airfields in the Australian state of
Queensland. Many of these were previously civilian airfields ‘impressed’
into military service, others were built specifically for military purposes.
A large number of these Second World
War era airfields have now been converted to civilian and military airfields;
others have been bulldozed over and are now used as roads, industrial
areas or farming land. This book attempts to show all of the fields
used in Queensland during the war, what happened to them after 1945,
and what is left of them today.
The contents of the book are totally
in black and white - this includes photos (both wartime and recent)
and a number of very interesting airfield diagrams. The airfields are
set out in latitudinal order (that is, from the northern most airfield,
to the southernmost airfield) eg, from Horn Island and Higgins, to Archerfield,
Amberley and Leyburn.
Each airfield has a brief description
about its past (if any), the reason for choosing that particular area,
why it was named, who used it, when it was decommissioned and what it
is (or what’s left of it) now.
The Appendices are just as interesting
as the body of the book - one gives the details of which nationalities
and units served at which airfield and when; another lists how each
airfield mapped at the time - on RAAF, USAAF and even Japanese documents.
Overall this is a very good book, particularly
for those wanting to travel to these airfields, Queensland residents,
or anyone who served at any of the airfields documented.
