Misplaced Pages

15°19′38.28″N 119°58′0.84″E / 15.3273000°N 119.9669000°E / 15.3273000; 119.9669000

Iba Airfield
Part of Fifth Air Force
Luzon, Philippines
Rare color photo taken of one of the first B-17Ds in the Philippines, October 1941, Iba Field. Nine B-17s from Hawaii arrived shortly before.
Type	Military airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1930s
In use	1940–1941 (Occupied by the Japanese, December 1941 – January 1945)
Battles/wars	Battle of the Philippines (1942)

Iba Airfield is a former United States Army Air Forces airfield on Luzon in the Philippines. It was overrun by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Battle of the Philippines (1942), it was struck in an air raid at same time as the attack on Clark Field on 8 December 1941.

History

The airfield was a former training camp for the Philippine Constabulary on the western coast of Luzon in Zambales province. In the summer of 1941, it was placed in use by the Americans as a gunnery training field for pursuit (fighter) units. The Far East Air Force sent the 3d Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group to Iba for aerial gunnery training in its new P-40E Warhawks in mid-October, where it was when war broke out on 8 December 1941. In addition to the pursuit planes, the first operational SCR-270 mobile early-warning radar was deployed to the airfield at the same time. Iba was a grass field with few support facilities.

The first word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was received by commercial radio between 0300–0330 hours local. Within 30 minutes radar at Iba Field, Luzon plotted a formation of airplanes 75 miles (120 km) offshore, heading for Corregidor Island. P-40s were sent out to intercept but made no contact. By 1130 hours, the fighters sent into the air earlier landed for refueling, andradar disclosed another flight of Japanese aircraft 70 miles (112 km) West of Lingayen Gulf, headed south. Fighters from Iba Field made another fruitless search over the South China Sea. The P-40s sent on patrol of the South China Sea returned to Iba with fuel running low at the beginning of a Japanese attack on the airfield. The P-40s failed to prevent bombing but did manage to contest the low-level strafing of the sort which proved so destructive at Clark Field soon after. The radar set at Iba, however, was destroyed in the attack and the 3rd PS decimated.

On 9 December, the remnants of the 3d Pursuit Squadron relocated to Nichols Field. The airfield was abandoned by the USAAF about 20 December prior to it being overrun by the invading Imperial Japanese Army. After its occupation, it was used by Japanese aircraft as a satellite field for the Clark area.

See also

• Geography of the Philippines
• Military History of the Philippines
• Military History of the United States
• United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific Theatre

Images

• Highway sign
• Runway of Iba, Zambales Airport panorama
• Aviation school plane
• The short runway
• Aviation schools with parked training planes
• Descending plane of student pilot with professor
• Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines office in the center of the Iba Airport and Airfield

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 0-89201-092-4.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) . Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
• The Army Air Forces in World War II, Chapter 6, Pearl Harbor and Clark Field

External links

• Iba Airfield Zambaless Province
• Map of Iba Airfield
• Airfields in Philippines
• Maps of Iba Airfield - Philippines 2013
• Iba Airfield - Airfield in Panibuatan, Zambales, Philippines

v t e USAAF Fifth Air Force in World War II
Previously: Philippine Department Air Force (1941); Far East Air Force (1941-1942)
Airfields	Pacific USAAF in Australia USAAF in the Southwest Pacific USAAF in Okinawa
Units	Commands V Bomber V Fighter 5th Interceptor (Provisional) Wings 54th Troop Carrier 85th Fighter 86th Fighter 91st Reconnaissance 308th Bombardment 309th Bombardment 310th Bombardment Groups Air Commando 3d Air Commando Bombardment 3d Bombardment 7th Bombardment 19th Bombardment 22d Bombardment 27th Bombardment 38th Bombardment 43d Bombardment 90th Bombardment 312th Bombardment 345th Bombardment 380th Bombardment 417th Bombardment Combat Cargo 2d Combat Cargo Fighter 8th Fighter 24th Pursuit 35th Fighter 49th Fighter 58th Fighter 348th Fighter 475th Fighter Reconnaissance 6th Reconnaissance 71st Reconnaissance Troop Carrier 317th Troop Carrier 374th Troop Carrier 375th Troop Carrier 433d Troop Carrier Squadrons Bombardment 31st Bombardment Night Fighter 418th Night Fighter 421st Night Fighter 547th Intelligence Reconnaissance 2d Observation 8th Photographic Reconnaissance 36th Photographic Reconnaissance Troop Carrier 21st Troop Carrier 22d Troop Carrier 65th Troop Carrier 66th Troop Carrier
United States Army Air Forces First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Fourteenth Fifteenth Twentieth

• World War II airfields in the Philippines
• Military history of the Philippines during World War II
• Military facilities in Zambales
• Airfields of the United States Army Air Corps during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42)
• History of Zambales