Gary Foster Comments:
RUNWAY ABLE, NORTH FIELD AIR BASE: This is the runway from which the B-29 named the Enola Gay took off on its way to Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. The sample was taken from the surface of the runway near the middle of the runway length. A relatively fine-grained sample, it's probably a composite of asphalt, small aggregate, and sand residue. I never found the quarry for the aggregate.
RUNWAY BAKER, NORTH FIELD AIR BASE: Of the four runways at North Field, this is the best-preserved runway. The sample was taken from the surface nearer the east end of the runway. Much the same as the sample from Runway Able, it's granier.
Each runway (and Runway Charlie and Runway Delta, four total at North Field) are about 8,500 feet long. I read that the runways were two hundred feet wide. I had to pace off the width of one of them. My pacing, or measuring stride, is a hair over 36 inches, in fact 36.03 inches to be exact. I found both lateral edges of Runway Able. I stepped the width off, edge to edge, in exactly 66 paces wich is 200 feet!
Note: I say I found the edges. This is simple, I know, except that the jungle is virulently reclaiming the runways, and the edges are now covered in thick ground cover which is encroaching the entire runway. I am not sure from which runway the B-29 named Bockscar took off on its way to Nagasaki three days after the Enola Gay dropped her bomb on Hiroshima.
WHITE BEACH 1 and WHITE BEACH 2: This is where the US Marines landed two divisions in June, 1944 to capture Tinian, an island almost perfectly bisected by a north-south line, not even four miles across the straits from Saipan. These beaches are less than 4,000 feet apart, but the sand is different. White Beach 2 is lighter in color. In each case, the grains are fine, and uniform.
The landing spot on White Beach 1 is only about 175 feet wide (all sand) while the entire beach area including difficult rocks and coral is 540 feet wide. The unobstructed landing spot on White Beach 2 (also called Chulu Beach) is over twice the useable width of White Beach 1, at about 400 feet wide. The entire beach area, including very rough rocks, is about 675 feet wide. Both beaches are accesible, but there is no paved road to White Beach 1. White Beach 2 sports a Japanese machine gun bunker at the north end. The Japanese had it oriented to cover the unobstructed beach with machine gun fire. It is heavily damaged, but is still intact. |
