The Snapshots in Time Collection

Low-Level Strike Photo: Wewak Airstrip with Bomb Impact and Aircraft Wreckage, New Guinea

Low-Level Strike Photo: Wewak Airstrip with Bomb Impact and Aircraft Wreckage, New Guinea

This photograph captures a low-level strike on the Wewak airstrip in New Guinea, part of the sustained Fifth Air Force campaign against Japanese airfields in 1943. Wrecked enemy aircraft lie scattered near the runway and tree line, while a rising plume of smoke marks a fresh bomb impact - a scene repeated across the region as the 312th Bomb Group and other units worked to destroy Japanese air power on the ground. Project: 218561