Suichwan Airfield is a former

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 ...

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 ...

airfield in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, located approximately 2 miles southwest-west of Yutianzhen,

Suichuan County Suichuan County () is a county in the southwest of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hunan province to the southwest. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Ji'an, and is its southernmost county-level di ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

Province,

History

The airfield was used primarily by forward photo-reconnaissance units flying unarmed

P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive tw ...

aircraft over Japanese-occupied territory on intelligence gathering missions beginning in October 1943 until the end of the war. The airfield was evacuated in June 1944 due to Japanese units advancing in the area, then reactivated in November. It was again evacuated in late January 1945 in the face of a rapid Japanese advance. It was again activated on 30 April 1945. It was eventually closed at the end of the war in October 1945, and appears to have been abandoned. Aerial photography shows many remains of the field to this day.

References

* Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983.
Airfields & Seaplane Anchorages China

USAFHRA Document Search - Suichwan
{{authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in China