Mount Druitt Aerodrome was a

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) landing ground during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Mount Druitt, New South Wales Mount Druitt is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown, and is part of the Greater Western Sydney regio ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Land was commandeered in March 1942, for the construction of an aerodrome, two aircraft hangars and workshops on the site. The aerodrome was utilised for a period of time, after World War II, as a storage facility (bomb dump) for

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

and 10,000 500''lb'' general purpose aerial bombs were placed upon the landing strip. The runway ran down the center of the current Whalan Reserve in a roughly north–south (NNW-SSE) direction. After the war the fledgling Australian Racing Drivers Club ran races there (1951–53) at the Mt Druitt race track which incorporated part of the runway and taxi ways. The land was not handed back to its owner until January 1951. Only a part of the land was handed back to the owner which is why the racing ended in 1956 when the club was preparing to bid for the fledgling F1 championship race to be held in Australia. Argument over land ownership and the right to hold the F1 race meeting ended when the owner of part of the track dug huge tranches in the track, 2 metres deep, this ended the life of this race track.

Units based at Mount Druitt Aerodrome

* No. 13 Signals Unit RAAF * No. 1 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF * No. 2 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF ''(renamed to No. 2 Repair and Servicing Unit RAAF)'' * No. 6 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF * No. 11 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF * No. 14 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF * No. 18 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF

References

Blacktown City Council RAAF Memorial Park webpage
Former Royal Australian Air Force bases Defunct motorsport venues in Australia {{mil-aviation-stub

Units based at Mount Druitt Aerodrome

See also

References