Altteureu Airfield (), also known as Cheju-do No. 2 (K-40) Air Base, was a former

Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service The was the Naval aviation, air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The organization was responsible for the operation of naval aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. The Japanese military acquired their first air ...

and

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

(USAF) air base on southern Jeju Island, South Korea. It was mostly returned to farm land from the late 1960s onwards, though the site is still owned and used to some extent by the Republic of Korea Air Force, in particular a

grass airstrip According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, o ...

known semi-officially as ''Alddreu Airport''.

History

Gamaoreum underground Japanese Millitary base at WWII

The airfield, then known as ''Altehru Airfield'', was originally developed between 1926 and 1930 during the Japanese Imperial period. The local population were used as forced labour to flatten and clear the landscape, and later to build underground tunnels. Initially, it was primarily used as a refueling station, as well as a base for

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

and maritime patrol aircraft. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

it was also used as a forward base of the Omura Naval Air Group for the bombing of cities in China such as Shanghai and Nanjing.

World War II

Among other things, the base was used for the training of ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

'' pilots and by the end of the war it housed 2500 naval aviation troops and 25 aircraft in hardened aircraft shelters. Nearing the end of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

the Japanese were facing an inevitable defeat. Fearing a fight on Japanese soil, they planned on using Jeju's Alddreu Airfield as a last resort to defend against the Allied forces.

Korean War

The USAF designated the base as Cheju-do No.2 or K-40. It was apparently mainly used as a refueling & communications facility and came under the umbrella of the ''100th Air Base Wing'' from 5 August 1951. Along with an airfield security

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

of the USAF's Air Police, there were communications, civil engineering, and food service companies permanently based at K-40 during this period.

Postwar

Aldreu Japanese underground hangar at WWII

TACAN A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...

facility was built on the base, now known as ''Altteureu Airfield'', during the early 1960s. Alddreu was handed over by the USAF to the ROKAF in the later part of that decade. The base continues to be owned by the Korean Air Force but has been largely leased to civilians since the time of the handover, with most of the site being currently used as

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

fields, though a large number of pre- and post-war facilities are still intact to one degree or another. These include 19 (out of an original 20) World War II aircraft bunkers, and a 1,400-meter grass runway which is still in use as a

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

airstrip An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

by the ROKAF. Seogwipo City planned at one stage during the late 2000s to develop the area as a theme park.

References

External links

S. Korean island still holds Japan’s final fortifications to oppose U.S. invasion
- ''

The Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...