Lamphun Airstrip: 1944 to 1945

Lamphun Airstrip
1. Lamphun Airstrip Summary
2. Lamphun Airstrip: 1944 to 1945
3. Lamphun Airstrip: Ban Pa Sed Airstrip

January 1944

The following corrections page appears to be referring to a page not currently available, but which would appear similar in format to the first page under April 1944 below.1

 

17 Jan 1944: No aircraft were reported to have been sighted this date (see 31 Dec 1943 report on previous page).

February 1944

07 Feb 1944: This is the first records currently available of an Allied surveillance aircraft photographing Lamphun, a USAAF P-38 (F-5A) outfitted with aerial photo equipment recorded the area from 25,000 feet (7600 m) at 1320 hrs:2

13 Feb 1944: “No aircraft visible”:3

26 Feb 1944: Aerial photo plane overflew Lamphun, but haze obscured ground features:4

03 March 1944: Despite some repairs, the airstrip was judged “At present out of operation”. One critically important point is the correct presentation of the alignment of the airstrip: it is definitely not north-south as previously described; unfortunately that revelation did not carry through to future reports.5

26 March 1944: An RAF photo recon aircraft made a five photo mosaic of the Lamphun town area. It did not include the airstrip in its coverage.

On this date, as in December 1943, an aircraft was sighted, again not identified:6

21 April 1944: Further minor activity at the airstrip: a small unidentified aircraft was sighted at the Lamphun airstrip; and a small hangarette was noted to have been erected to the west of the runway.7

29 April 1944: Another small unidentified aircraft was sighted at the Lamphun airstrip (see 21 April 1944 report directly above).

30 April 1944: Here the airstrip gets a more formal treatment, probably due less to its importance than to the growing availability of Allied manpower to standardize reporting procedures:8

April 1944

A routine update in a different format:9

The GRP entry “ELG” means “Emergency Landing Group”.

The difficult-to-read details under “Location” are:

2 mi. E of Lambhun, a town on W bank of Nam Nuang River
1/3 mi. NE of Lambhun/Kun Tan RR
1/2 mi. NE of Lambhun/Ban Pa Kam road
1 1/4 mi. ESE of RR bridge over Nam Nuang River
14 mi. SSE of Chiengmai

October 1944

22 Oct 1944: The term, “infrequent cover”, ie, “infrequent coverage“, suggests that Allied intelligence did not consider the Lamphun airstrip significant.10

26 Oct 1944: Overcast skies prevented photo coverage of Lamphun:11

November 1944

01 Nov 1944: Once again overcast skies prevented photo coverage of Lamphun:12

11 Nov 1944: An aerial photo aircraft recorded a 13km north-south stretch of railway leading to the Khun Tan tunnel from Lampang, and then photographed the airstrip southeast of Lamphun, the town itself, and the rail yards to the northeast of town:13

27 Nov 1944: An aerial photo aircraft caught Lamphun Airstrip from 25,000 feet (7600 m):14

December 1944

23 Dec 1944: Cloudy weather prevented aerial photo coverage:15

30 Dec 1944: This December monthly report shows a higher level of sophistication in printing composition than that in April. Substantively, the primary difference in the following document (December 1944) from that in April 1944 above lies in the clear statement that the “Local Position” of the airstrip is “parallel to and 600 yards E of the railway line”. Unfortunately, that statement is followed by “LAMBHUN-LAMPANG railway runs NNW-SSE (337°-157°) . . .”  In actual fact, the direction, 319°, is rather closer to NW-SE (315°-135°).16

31 Dec 1944: A more formal and extensive description was issued about Lamphun in a report covering all Thai air facilities in early 1945; but there was little information not previously covered in the April 1944 monthly report. Key wording in this more sophisticated report appears in the introductory paragraph: “. . . this site has never achieved much prominence”:17

1945

05 January 1945

Here, and in later intel reports, the distress of the IJA in this last stage of the war is evident — no activity is observed at the airstrip. In fact, airfield maintenance has obviously failed.18

Also on 05 Jan 1945, a photo recon flight reported coverage of Lamphun town, air strip, and railyard:19

13 Jan 1945: another photo recon flight reported coverage of the town and airstrip at Lamphun:20

29 Jan 1945: Weather prevented aerial coverage:21

17 Feb 1945: This was the final PRS21 aerial coverage of Lamphun:22

22 March 1945: It remained “disused”.:23

April 1945: A mere bookkeeping exercise:24

circa April 1945

A Royal Thai Air Force history of WWII p 168 records that several Thai airports used by the Japanese were destroyed, including Lamphun.25

There are no further observations recorded, or at least currently available, about the status of the airstrip at Lamphun at the end of the war.

There is a curious coincidence, however, involving an air facility in this one area that developed after the war:

Last Updated on 29 February 2024

  1. Airfield Report No. 18, Jan 1944, Part II, Amendment No 2, Amendments to Thailand Aerodromes List, p 36 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 475). [↩]
  2. 21st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (hereafter 21PRS) Report Mission No. 14-6A, 07 Feb 1944 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0155). The aerial photo reconnaissance reports included here record coverage of Lampang by only the 21st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (21PRS) starting in February 1944. Other Allied units provided similar coverage, but their flight records have not yet been released (Nov 2012). [↩]
  3. Airfield Report No. 19, Feb 1944, Record of Airfield Development and Activity, Thailand, p 24 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 524). [↩]
  4. 21PRS Report Mission No. 14/23 A, 26 Feb 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0118). [↩]
  5. Plans of Airfields in Fench Indo-China and Siam, Publication No 3II (South-East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center, 30 Nov 1944) (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8023, p 469). [↩]
  6. Airfield Report No. 21, Apr 1944, Record of Airfield Development and Activity, Thailand, p XVII (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 713). [↩]
  7. Airfield Report No 22, May 1944, Record of Airfield Activity and Development, Thailand, p 14, (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 752). [↩]
  8. Airfield Report No. 21, Apr 1944, unnumbered page (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 668). [↩]
  9. Provisional Airfield List-Southeast Asia (Burma, French Indo-China, Malaya, Thailand), Enemy Airfield Information, 2? Jul 1944, p 62 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A1284, p 1412). [↩]
  10. Airfield Report No 27, Oct 1944, Record of Airfield Activity and Development, Thailand, p 9 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 1019). [↩]
  11. 21PRS Report Mission No. 4 MA 133, 26 Oct 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0552). [↩]
  12. 21PRS Report Mission No. 4 MA 136, 01 Nov 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0567). [↩]
  13. 21PRS Report Mission No. 4 MA 149, 11 Nov 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0586). [↩]
  14. 21PRS Report Mission No. 4 MA 170, 27 Nov 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0621). [↩]
  15. 21PRS Report Mission No. 4 MA 41W, 23 Dec 1944 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0682). [↩]
  16. Airfield Report No 29, Dec 1944, unnumbered page (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 1150). [↩]
  17. Siam (Thailand) List of Airfields and Seaplane Stations (Washington: Office Assistance Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence, 1945), unnumbered pages (USAF Archive microfilm reel A1285, pp 1217-1219). [↩]
  18. Airfield Report No 30, Jan 1945, Record of Airfield Activity and Development, p 6 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 1269). [↩]
  19. 21PRS Report Mission No. 5 MA 4, 05 Jan 1945 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0815). [↩]
  20. 21PRS Report Mission No. 5 MA 9, 13 Jan 1945 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0807). [↩]
  21. 21PRS Report Mission No. 5 MA 15 W, 29 Jan 1945 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0785). [↩]
  22. 21PRS Report Mission No. 5MA 39, 17 Feb 1945 (USAF archive microfilm reel A0878 p 0769). [↩]
  23. Airfield Report No 32, Mar 1945, Record of Aircraft Activity and Development (Siam), p 7 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8055, p 1150). [↩]
  24. Airfield Report No 33, Apr 1945, Record of Airfield Activity and Development, Amedments to Airfield Lists, Siam, p 9 (USAF Archive microfilm reel A8056, p 0309). [↩]
  25. RTAF 1941-1945, p 168). [↩]

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