Taroa Airfield was a major air base approximately three miles long and one mile wide on Taroa Island in the Maloelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The runway, which spanned the length of the island, is still in use today and known as Maloelap Airport (Airport Code: MAV).[1]
The target that day was an enemy personnel area on Taroa; this tiny island had already been bombed flat, but hundreds of surviving Japanese troops were reportedly still dug-in there. Over the island at 8,000 feet, Lindbergh pushed forward into a steep 60-degree dive. The enemy gamely fought back, sending up accurate small-arms fire.[4]
A combination of aerial attacks, bombardment from naval ships, and supply line disruption caused many deaths; only 34% of those originally on the island survived.[1] The Japanese abandoned the island on February 5, 1944.[1]
A US Navy reconnaissance photo of this island in 1944 shows a twin-engine twin tail plane that author Randall Brink thinks belonged to missing aviator Amelia Earhart.[5]
^Rottman, Gordon. (2004). The Marshall Islands 1944 : Operation Flintlock, the Capture of Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Gerrard, Howard. Oxford: Osprey Pub. ISBN9781846036675. OCLC476231961.
^"10,000-ton Jap ship sunk". The Times of India. December 4, 1943.
^Provenza, G. D. "Lindbergh's War: The Famed Flier Joined Marine Pilots in Combat Against the Japanese." Leatherneck (Pre-1998) 75, no. 5 (05, 1992): 16-21.
Adams, W.H., Ross, R.E., Krause, E.L., & Spennemann, D. (1997). Marshall Islands Archaeology – The Japanese Airbase on Taroa Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1937-45: An Evaluation of the World War II Remains. San Francisco, California: Micronesian Endowment for Historic Preservation, Republic of the Marshall Islands, U.S. National Park Service.
