Warbird Information Exchange

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Google earth has excellent resolution across this part of Biak showing both the operational Mokmer airfield and the abandoned Borokoe airfield, as well as the remains of Sorido airfield.



As JDVoss comments above, Sorido is built over with a Naval Base, the base hospital is clearly marked on the roof, and the hunter mentioned by JDV is clearly visible to the west end of a hangar on the former dutch base at Borokoe airfield at co-ords 1 deg, 10' 21.38" S & 136 deg 04' 19.40" E scaling at @30' wingspan using the google ruler?



From the photos above the Liberator graveyard appears to have been in the valley of the foothills to north of the wartime Mokmer airfield which is now the main 13000 ft jet runway on the island, as referred to by JDV as well.






If that valley is the graveyard site, it certainly appears well cleaned up compared to the wall to wall aluminium shown in the photos, although the taxi ways and dispersals are still in place, but with rural properties and houses dotted across there length.

Most objects are clearly houses/sheds, although there is reflective areas of ground which may be smelter areas with slag/waste?

But I am intrigued as to the strange shaped 30' span structures or objects apparantly sitting in the middle of that location, away from the road/taxiway and adjacent to a tree at 1 deg 10' 30.50" S & 136 deg 06' 33.65" E

Anyone got an opinion to what it is, a cattle pen? horse correll?


So guys over to you- what are your best and most practical guesses,
(the ruler line in the pic is 30' for scaling!)






Here it is as a red dot in the dispersal area north of the Mokmer runway.



When are you next passing through JDV? to tell us what it really is?


smiles

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

Mark:

Thanks so much for posting google.earth photos on the site. They certainly tell the contemporary story of Biak. I really have no idea as to what the open pens are that you identified . It's conceivable they could be animal corrals. Also if you look at the very north side of Mokemer Airfield you will see a derelect Scottish Avaition Twin Pioneer located at 1 deg 11' 00.60'' x 136 deg 05' 57.84". In the immediate area you will also note varous small hangers that used to house Dutch Hawker Hunters. Apparently the Dutch military utilized both airfields. After reviewing the 1950's photos posted on www.biak.nl website the Dutch military presence in that area was much stronger that I had ever imagined. Fairey Fireflys, Hawker Hunters, P2V Nepturnes, PBM Mariners, C-47's, etc etc.

Actually in the Biak area there was one point of incredible WWII interest that being Owi Island Airfield. If you pull up Biak again on google.earth then find Owi Island just a couple of miles SE of Biak you can see the former runway outlines thru the jungle growth. Unfortunatly the resolution of google.earth is poor for Owi. There is still a lot of stuff remaining on the island..albeit derelcit junk. PSP, oxygen bottles, aluminium aircraft components..even an old army truck . But no aircraft however. I had difficulty in finding someone to paddle me over there (yes, paddle ..it was an outrigger canoe) and when I did they would only gave me an hour to explore the island...hardly adequate. One would actually need a couple of days and unfortunatly my return flight to LAX left the next day.

Getting to Biak is a bit more cumbersome now as there is no longer a HNL link so one would have to fly to Jakarta or Bali and backtrack from there. In the late 1990's Biak was closed to outsiders for a period due to a local (and ugly) incident with a separatist elements in the area.