Let us continue our look at the state of Alaska and the airfields that were built there during World War 2. As any flight sim player would know, these airfields were extremely important in training ground crews and flight crews before they headed off to Europe to partake in World War II. Without these training facilities our boys would have never been properly prepared for what lay ahead of them.
Alaska also provided a very nice replica of the geography pilots would encounter fighting in the Alps and their vicinity. Thus, Alaska was an important state for preparations.
Without further delay here are some more combat flight airfields that were in Alaska:
- Elmendorf Field; now Elmendorf Air Force Base
- Fort Glenn Army Airfield; now abandoned
- Fort Morrow Army Airfield; now Port Heiden Airport
- Fort Randall Army Airfield; now Thornbrough Air Force Base
- Shemya Army Airfield; now Shemya Air Force Base
- Annette Island Army Airfield; now Annette Island airport
- Todd Army airfield; now Bethel Civil Airport
- Big Delta Army Airfield; now Fort Greely
- Cordova Airport; now Cordova Municipal Airport
- Gakona Landing Strip; now abandoned
- Galena Airport; now refueling airfield
- Gambell Army Airfield; now Gambell Airport
- Juneau Airport; now civil airport.
- Kishka Army Airfield; now abandoned
- Ladd Army Airfield; now part of Alaskan Air Command.
Besides all of these there were numerous minor airstrips that were built for emergency landings. Many of these are still used today by bush pilots and small communities like Akiachak and Akiak.
Alaska has quite a few airstrips that have been abandoned which is unusual compared to other states. Two reasons for this abandonment: first, the population of Alaska is not sufficient enough to support too many airstrips and secondly, Alaska is better suited for mountainous and cold-weather training and most of the training needed today is desert training.
Nevertheless, the war effort in Alaska was mammoth in scope; it just so happened it was fortuitous because the Japanese actually attacked and held several islands in Alaska during the war so the airfields, besides being training grounds, were actually needed in defense of Alaska. Besides Hawaii, Alaska is the only U.S. state to actually see warfare during the way.
We at Aces High love this stuff and we hope you do too. In order to make the best combat flight simulator on the market we believe we need to be students of this war; that’s why our World War 2 Flight Simulator is the best you can find.
