헨더슨 비행장
헨더슨 비행장
Henderson Field was a military airfield built on Guadalcanal during the Second World War, initially constructed by Japanese forces as Lunga Airfield. After its capture by U.S. forces in August 1942, it was named for Marine aviator Major Lofton Henderson, killed at Midway, and became the critical base from which control of the island's airspace and surrounding waters was contested during the Guadalcanal campaign.
In depth
Japanese forces began building the airfield at Lunga Point in July 1942, and Allied coastwatchers' observations helped prompt the U.S. plan to seize Guadalcanal and the site. U.S. Marines landed on August 7 and captured the nearly completed field, which U.S. Navy Seabees repaired and expanded. Marine fighters and dive bombers arrived on August 20, establishing the base for the so-called Cactus Air Force; Japanese land attacks and naval bombardments from August through November failed to retake it. Abandoned after the war, the field reopened in 1969 as Honiara International Airport.
The field's strategic importance lay in its function as an advance air base, not merely in its runway. Whoever held it could patrol and strike over Guadalcanal and nearby shipping routes, so both sides committed aircraft, ships, and ground forces to a costly struggle over its use.
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) (일본군이 건설을 시작한 과달카날의 비행장을 1942년 8월 미군이 점령하고 헨더슨 비행장으로 명명했으며, 이후 전투에서 핵심 기지로 사용된 사실을 뒷받침함)
- nationalww2museum.org (비행장 점령이 일본의 보급로 차단 시도를 막았고, 비행장과 주변 해역의 통제를 둘러싸고 장기간 전투가 벌어진 사실을 뒷받침함)