Sentimental Journey,
The Air Fields of the Sixth Air Force, New France Field
This is the fourth in a series of short histories of the air fields of America’s "Forgotten Air Force," the Sixth Air Force, which commenced in the Summer 2003 (Vol. 48, No. 2) issue of the AAHS Journal describing "Old" France Field, Canal Zone, followed by that for Albrook Field, Canal Zone, in the Spring 2005 (Vol. 50, No. 1) issue and that for Howard Field, Canal Zone, in the Fall 2009 (Vol. 54, No. 3) issue. These have been prepared with materials collected for the author’s history of Army aviation in defense of the Panama Canal and the Caribbean "˜ALAE SUPRA CANALEM: The Sixth Air Force and the Antilles Air Command’ (Turner Publishing Co., Paducah, Ky.), which were too extensive to be included in that title, and thus they are presented here as a memorial to the men and women who served in that far off land where there was truly "No Ground to Give." There is no memorial, no marker, no surviving symbol in the region where they served, to commemorate their service in the former Canal Zone and the Caribbean where many gave the last full measure of devotion.
The original installment in this series described the first Army aviation station in the Panama Canal Zone, France Field, which dated from the WWI era. By the time the U.S. Army Air Corps elements stationed in defense of the Canal had transitioned, during the immediate pre-Pearl Harbor years, to more advanced – and much heavier - aircraft, the old land-fill airfield had become nearly untenable.
By January 5, 1942, a scant 29 days after the Japanese attack, the Chief of Staff of the Caribbean Defense Command (CDC) advised the chief engineer, CDC, that the commanding general desired a list of Canal Zone priorities whereby the highest priority should be given to preparation of France Field, as it existed at the time. It was to be improved for use as a dedicated pursuit aerodrome, as it was nearly unusable by the Douglas B-18 and early Boeing B-17s assigned to the command at the time, although they did in fact occasionally operate from the very rough surface as seemingly never-ending repairs continued to be made to the land-fill surfaces. However, even as long-overdue improvements were being made, the field lost one of its main operating units to Albrook Field as the Panama Air Depot, which had been at France Field from the very earliest days, began moving to the new, huge hangar being erected at Albrook on the southeast side by September 1942.
France Field had been surveyed in 1939 in connection with the Aviation Expansion Program. The survey revealed that the field required, as a minimum, a 5,000-foot, hard-surfaced runway for the use of medium and long-range bombers. Due to budget shortcomings prevailing at the time, it was generally felt that the very high cost of improving the field to meet 1939 requirements would be prohibitive. By the end of 1940, plans for the rehabilitation of France Field were, nonetheless, drawn up and partially approved. It was, probably to the enormous relief of all concerned, proposed that the old "any direction" landing area be utterly abandoned and that two new, 5,000-foot runways be constructed on the same reservation, but east of the Trans-Isthmian Highway, some distance from what was shortly being called "Old" France Field. Indeed, for some time after construction began and for a period after it became operational, the new eastern runways were usually simply cited as "New" Field. Although personnel assigned to the station continued to use these local designators well into the postwar years, officially, the collective station was simply France Field – later France Air Force Base (FAFB), after the USAF became a separate branch of service.
In February 1942, General Arnold himself, who had once served at France Field during WWI, approved the expenditure of $185,000 for the extension of the old landing area at "Old" France Field and for the construction of a new bypass road . . .Â
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Republic P-47 Thunderbolt at New France Field
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