Tarawa Airfield was a single runway orientated east to west that spanned roughly two-thirds of Tarawa Island (Betio) in the Gilbert Islands (Republic of Kiribati). Built by the Japanese as a single runway surfaced with crushed coral for military aircraft with a turnaround on the eastern end of the runway and a taxiway with revetments between the runway and the taxiway.
During November 20-21, 1943 Tarawa Airfield became a battlefield when U. S. Marines landed on the island and captured the airfield as the objective of the operation. By late December 1943, renamed "Hawkins Field" in honor of Marine 1st Lt. William Dean Hawkins who was killed in the battle to recapture Tarawa and earned the Medal of Honor, posthumously.
Disused since the war, wreckage of Japanese aircraft remains on the offshore coral reef flats, where they were bulldozed during late 1943.
Enjoy!
-ATAR
Unfortunately I am not familiar with scenery design. I know however that you will find some help in the libraries and the forums on this site. You might like to try that, because it is just too bad that this very interesting airfield has some flaws that probably can be corected. Good luck and I hope to see an update in the future.
3 years ago
Hupie
Hi,
Thanks for this nice addition. However you might want to improve this scenery by deleting some of the buildings just along the taxitracks. Also the pool of water in the middle which you can only cross with collisions /damage deleted. The moving cars on the runway and taxitracks make it a bit unconvincing. Could you add a few static (military) aircraft in the dispersals? That all would make it very good..
3 years ago
Hupie