NETWORK OF AIRFIELDS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23848, 18 January 1943, Page 3

NETWORK OF AIRFIELDS

AUSTRALIA’S BIG

TASK

|N gTBUCTION PROBLEMS

SYDNEY, January 13. ■ , months thousands' of Aushave built a great > n . network of aerodromes, air!gird d Jpersal strips, to give tlfe rfr Forces operating in Ausd oiimum offensive mobility and 1 against air attack. It is sc"® „ost spectacular construe-, f jobs ever undertaken in the was begun rfleW Strength was being aug--1 Si, -Tjfbrcements of American T when existing 1 4; ' proved inadequate for »Aj£,erowing resources of the Australian and American air bl " a Imbled in this country. The 5 "V to make Australia an aerial : o J as /gainst Japan’s southward

time few Australian aerol h were large enough for the f vj|gest bombers. They had to d ?., 0 More flight strips had to > ad f V special need was the imS«itof aerodrome defences by instruction of dispersal airstrips C To Sfications devised as a re1 0 f bitter experience in Hawaii Airfield cannot be built in a day. construct a single runway a mile f*nd 400 feet wide may absorb Wmbined energies of 200 men for & from two to six months sat breakneck speed night and

' iust because it takes so long mUd that a properly constructed l', d is so important. The seal of « was upon the Malayan campaign Sent it became clear that we i not hold our aerodromes. GuadL is still American territory beTthe Marines have held on so iriously to the Henderson airfield. Why Gocring Failed

m of the most significant reasons r Goering failed to bomb Britain , jubmission after the fall of IP was the lack of suitable aero- «« in Holland, Belgium, and «ce There were not enough of «to put the full weight of the t«affe into the air. Most of them .1 too small for big bombers and ttoiaately camouflaged and distil/. ...

Britain, on the other hand, »ged nearly 600 aerodromes, jtoi grounds, and satellite aeromes 'so dispersed as to give the »alAir Force maximum mobility, ipite of ferocious attacks on Engit inland fighter aerodromes from nist 30 to September 6, 1940, the wafle never once succeeded in putthat strategic chain of airfields lof action. . A .. nbat Britain had done, Australia tout to do. All over the country, |m north to south, east to west, the DC. scattered its high-speed labour fgades, armed with the most formidle aggregation of heavy mechanical bipraent ever assembled in Austra-

K popular fallacy is that concrete ikes the best runway. Actually, the st choice is bitumen, which is ore readily repaired after damage bombs. Equally fallacious is the notion that u can make a runway by merely taring a piece pf level ground, me country is often swamp counr, so that without the construction an elaborate, drainage system your atrip Aulckly; becomes a quagmire. iW JBullding the Kumvay ■in, fh&t,- mosquitoes, and primiconditions are only some of I handicaps with which the men of i C.Q.C. had to contend when they I buffo make Australia safe from rial attack. In addition, they had work harder than most of them had nr worked in their lives.

Take the constructional problems iniVed in making a typical bush runiy. First to arrive on the scene is e C.C.C. flying squad, which erects a mi-permanent- encampment for 200 250: workers. It is the beginning the offensive. If trees are in the ay they are loosened round the roots id pushed over like ninepins by a ttering squad of bulldozers until the rip is clear of all obstructions. Melanical scoops and' graders level the ound to the specifications of a care-lly-prepared survey. With the aid of a porcupine roller, eighlng 15 tons, the ground is packed (htly to a depth \of two feet. The Uers (there are two of them) are idded with iron pins like a porcuhe’s spikes, which press into the baoil as the machine moves over the !ffhen the runway has been consolidtd to a length of a mile or more it (covered with a layer of thick gravel pfch. alter being compressed with and brushed clean with #r brooms, is topped with metal Ctyfugs. Over this surface is sprayed i.WT of hot bitumen, which receives ««coatings of blue metal scrapings opduce the fine, hard finish that viSitCQd up to the wear and tear of

Kfflber,traffic, , . x Uenow have a hard tar-sealed strip ntfle long and 150 ft wide. On each fle tuns a 125 ft earth surface strip, M it is in this strip that an elabinte drainage system is laid down. A toered-in drain, 6ft deep, skirts the itaealed strip, and a 4ft wide ditch Tfflg round the earthen embankments, 'total df flve miles of drain for each runway, These drains are dug out by i mechanical ditcher. Riunwyaso,constructed are permanstructures. There is no reason why, *htn the war is over, they should not torn a,useful link in a chain of civil iirports. extending from one end of me Commonwealth to the other.