Iba Airfield

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).

History

The airfield was built by the Americans prior to World War II and used primarily for gunnery training. It was on the western coast of Luzon in Zambales provience. The Fifth Air Force based P-40E Warhawks assigned to the 3d Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group at the airfield prior to the Japanese air attack on the Philippines, 8 December 1941. In addition to the pursuit planes, a RADAR early warning station was located at the airfield.

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-40's were sent out to intercept but made no contact. By 1130 hours, the fighters sent into the air earlier landed for refueling, and radar 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-40's 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-40's failed to prevent bombing but did manage to prevent the low-level strafing of the sort which proved so destructive at Clark Field earlier that day. The RADAR facilities at Iba, however, were destroyed in the attack.

On 9 December, the 3d Pursuit Squadron transferred from Iba 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 website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

• 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) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556. http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/combat_sq_of_the_af_wwii.pdf. 
• 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