Alexai Point Landing Field
Encyclopedia
Alexai Point Landing Field is an abandoned World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 airfield with two runways laid across Alexai Point on Attu Island
Attu Island
Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on the incorporated territory of the United States ,...

, Alaska. The remains of the airbase are located about 4 miles east of Naval Air Station Attu, directly across Massacre Bay.

History

On 30 May 1943, before the battle for Attu was completely over, the building of Alexai Point Airfield was initiated using Marsden Matting
Marsden Matting
Marsden Matting is standardized, perforated steel matting material originally developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips...

 to pave the runways. The first landing at Alexai Point Airfield was made by an Eleventh Air Force
Eleventh Air Force
The Eleventh Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska....

 C-47 arriving on 8 June 1943 to deliver fighter crews to Alexai Point, all other arrivals for that day were canceled due to bad weather. By mid-July bombers from Alexai Point Airfield had made their first strike against Japan, a raid against the northern Kuril Islands
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands , in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater...

.

Accidents and incidents

On 1 January 1945 2nd Lt. Robert L. Nesmith flying from Alexai Point, crashed his Lockheed P-38G-10-LO Lightning in Temnac Valley, just west of Attu Station while on a low-level training mission over Attu. The aircraft was nominated to be added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 but instead was recovered in 1999 and static-restored for display at Elmendorf AFB.

External links

  • Image of a sign "Welcome to Alexai Point, Unincorporated, The Home of the Army's Northwestern-Most Airfield."
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