Dinjan Airfield

Dinjan Airfield
Part of Tenth Air Force
Coordinates	27°32′16.86″N 095°16′10.01″E
Type	Military Airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1943-1945

Dinjan Airfield was a World War II airfield, located approximately seven miles northeast of Chabua, in the state of Assam, India.

It was abandoned after the war and is now derelict.

History

Dinjan Airfield was built on a Assam tea plantation by the hands of thousands of plantation laborers, men, women and children in 1942. When opened in the spring of 1942, its primary mission was the protection of cargo aircraft flying over "The Hump" (Himalayan Mountains).

• 11th Bombardment Squadron (7th Bombardment Group), June - October 1942

Flew B-17D/E Flying Fortresses (Pearl Harbor Attack and Battle of the Philippines Survivors)

• 51st Fighter Group, October 1942 - October 1943

Equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks and Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. The group defended the Indian terminus of the "Hump" airlift route over the Himalayan Mountains between India and China and airfields in that area. The group flew strafing, bombing, reconnaissance, and patrol missions in support of Allied ground troops during a Japanese offensive in northern Burma in 1943.

• 9th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, March - July 1943; September 1943 - May 1944 (Detachment)

• 311th Fighter Group, October 1943 - July 1944

Using A-36 Apaches and P-51 Mustangs, the group supported Allied ground forces in northern Burma; covered bombers that attacked Rangoon, Insein, and other targets; bombed enemy airfields at Myitkyina and Bhamo; and conducted patrol and reconnaissance missions to help protect transport planes that flew the Hump route between India and China.

In the summer of 1944 with the lessening of the Japanese air threat, the base became a combat cargo airfield, supporting Allied ground forces fighting in Burma.

• 443d Troop Carrier Group, July- Oct 1944; May - August 1945

Flew C-47s. The group's personnel and aircraft were assigned to the 1st Combat Cargo Group. Missions were concerned primarily with support for Allied forces that were driving southward through Burma but the 443rd also made many flights to China.

• 20th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, May - June 1944

• 3d Combat Cargo Group, August 1944 - June 1945

Flew C-47s. Supported ground forces during the battle for northern Burma and the subsequent Allied drive southward. Flew Allied troops and materiel to the front, transporting gasoline, oil, vehicles, engineering and signal equipment, and other items that the group either landed or dropped in Burma. Also evacuated wounded personnel to India.

• 427th Night Fighter Squadron, May - June 1945

With the end of combat in September 1945, Dinjan Airfield was abandoned. Today the runways of the former airfield can still be seen from aerial photography, however the base is overrun with vegetation and the land has returned to its natural state.

See also

• Objective, Burma!

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0892010924.
• www.pacificwrecks.com