Marrak Point

Last updated
Marrak Point
Summary
LocationMarraq Peninsula, Greenland
In use1942–1945
Coordinates 63°27′N51°11′W / 63.450°N 51.183°W / 63.450; -51.183 Coordinates: 63°27′N51°11′W / 63.450°N 51.183°W / 63.450; -51.183
Map
Greenland edcp location map.svg
Airplane silhouette.svg
Marrak Point

Marrak Point was the location and common name for a minor United States Army Air Forces airfield on the west coast of Greenland. It was operational from 1942 to 1945.

Contents

Name

The station was referred to as Bluie West Four (BW-4) in the USAAF, and as "Teague Field" by many. The location was marked as "Teague" on post-war aeronautical maps. State Department documents of 1945 define the U.S. Defense Area there as 6324N to 6327N, 5104W to 5116W.

History

Lt. Teague, a USAAF B-17 pilot, discovered Marrak Point by accident on 5 June 1942. His aircraft was part of a movement of B-17s across the Atlantic via Sondrestrom (BW-8). Unable to find his destination and running out of fuel, his crew searched the west coast for a flat place and set down successfully on the flat, rocky surface at Marrak Point. Assisted and refueled by the USCGC North Star days after, the B-17 returned to Sondrestrom on 11 June and it was decided to turn the landing place into a radio and weather station with an accompanying airstrip. The station, which is midways between BW-8 and BW-1, was then added to the airways system as BW-4. The first intended aircraft movement occurred on 4 October 1942, when a PBY-5A from VP-93 at BW-1 landed there.

Marrak Point was the site of a major air crash in August 1945, when an Army OA-10 Catalina from BW-1 crashed into nearby mountains with the loss of all aboard.

Marrak Point is one of the locations along the route of the Greenland Air Trophy 2019.

Legacy

Despite its advantageous location close to the capital Godthaab (84 km (52 mi)) and other populated areas on the western coast, the Danish government could find no use for the airfield after the USAAF evacuated it after the war. Remaining stores and items were taken or vandalized by locals. Remaining usable, the runway was kept on air navigation charts for many years.

Related Research Articles

Thule Air Base US air base in Greenland

Thule Air Base, or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport, is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, located 1,207 km (750 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km (947 mi) from the North Pole on the northwest coast of the island of Greenland.

Narsarsuaq Air Base

Bluie West One, later known as Narsarsuaq Air Base and Narsarsuaq Airport, was built on a glacial moraine at what is now the village of Narsarsuaq, near the southern tip of Greenland. Construction by the United States Army began in June 1941. The first aircraft landed there in January 1942, as a link in the North Atlantic air ferry route in World War II. The base had a peak population of about 4,000 American servicemen, and it is estimated that some 10,000 aircraft landed there en route to the war in Europe and North Africa.

RAF Membury

Royal Air Force Membury or more simply RAF Membury is a former Royal Air Force station built in the civil parish of Lambourn in Berkshire, England. The airfield is located approximately 4.6 miles (7.4 km) mi north-northwest of Hungerford, at the Membury services stop of the M4 motorway; about 60 miles (97 km) west-southwest of London. The airfield also lies immediately next to the Iron Age hill fort of Membury Camp.

The Crimson Route was a set of joint United States and Canada transport routes planned for ferrying planes and material from North America to Europe during World War II. The project was ended in 1943 and never fully developed.

RAF Bassingbourn

Royal Air Force Bassingbourn or more simply RAF Bassingbourn is a former Royal Air Force station located in Cambridgeshire approximately 3 mi (5 km) north of Royston, Hertfordshire and 11 mi (18 km) south west of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.

RAF Horsham St Faith 1939-1963 Royal Air Force station near Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK

RAF Horsham St Faith is a former Royal Air Force station near Norwich, Norfolk, England which was operational from 1939 to 1963. It was then developed as Norwich International Airport.

RAF Hethel

Royal Air Force Hethel or more simply RAF Hethel is a former Royal Air Force station which was used by both the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The airfield is located 7 miles (11 km) south west of Norwich, Norfolk, England and is now owned by Lotus Cars.

RAF Tibenham

Royal Air Force Tibenham or more simply RAF Tibenham is a former Royal Air Force station located 13.5 miles (21.7 km) southwest of Norwich and 5.8 miles (9.3 km) north of Diss, Norfolk, England.

RAF Attlebridge

Royal Air Force Attlebridge or more simply RAF Attlebridge is a former Royal Air Force station located near Attlebridge and 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Norwich, Norfolk, England.

RAF Woodchurch

Royal Air Force Woodchurch or more simply RAF Woodchurch is a former Advanced Landing Ground located in Kent, England. The airfield is located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Ashford; about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of London.

RAF Spanhoe

Royal Air Force Spanhoe or more simply RAF Spanhoe is a former Royal Air Force station in Northamptonshire, England. The airfield is located approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Uppingham; about 80 miles (130 km) north-northwest of London

Sondrestrom Air Base

Sondrestrom Air Base, originally Bluie West-8, was a U.S. air base in central Greenland. The site is located 60 mi (97 km) north of the Arctic Circle and 90 mi (140 km) from the northeast end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord, formerly known by its Danish name Søndre Strømfjord. The base is approximately 11 mi (18 km) west-northwest of Ravneklippen and 80 mi (130 km) east of Sisimiut.

Northeast Air Command

The Northeast Air Command (NEAC) was a short-lived organization in the United States Air Force tasked with the operation and defense of air bases in Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland. It was formed in 1950 from the facilities of the United States established during World War II in Northeast Canada, Newfoundland and Greenland. It was discontinued in 1957.

356th Fighter Group

The 356th Fighter Group is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the Army Service Forces, being stationed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. It was inactivated on 10 November 1945.

Bluie

Bluie was the United States military code name for Greenland during World War II. It is remembered by the numbered sequence of base locations identified by the 1941 United States Coast Guard South Greenland Survey Expedition, and subsequently used in radio communications by airmen unfamiliar with pronunciation of the Inuit and Old Norse names of those locations. These were typically spoken BLUIE (direction) (number), with direction being east or west along the Greenland coast from Cape Farewell.

North Atlantic air ferry route in World War II

The North Atlantic air ferry route was a series of Air Routes over the North Atlantic Ocean on which aircraft were ferried from the United States and Canada to Great Britain during World War II to support combat operations in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

Alexai Point Army Airfield

Alexai Point Army Airfield is an abandoned World War II airfield with two runways laid across Alexai Point on Attu Island, Alaska. The remains of the Seabee built airbase are located about 4 miles east of the closed Casco Cove Coast Guard Station, directly across Massacre Bay.

Bluie East Two

Bluie East Two was a minor United States Army Air Forces airfield at Ikateq in eastern Greenland. It was operational from 1942 to 1947.

Simiutaq (Kujalleq)

Simiutaq, old spelling Simiutak, is an uninhabited island in the Kujalleq municipality in southwestern Greenland. During the Second World War and after Simiutak was the site of a U.S. Navy facility code-named 'Bluie West 3'.

Bluie West 7 or Grondal was a major U.S. naval operating facility near Ivigtut in Arsuk Fjord, Greenland. In some form, it was in operation from 1940 to 1951, although its formal establishment by the U.S. Navy was on 1 April 1943. After 1942, the proper name was Grønnedal (Danish), or Green Valley (English), but the base was also called Grondal by Americans. Bluie was the military code name for Greenland. It was three miles east of the Ivigtut cryolite mine. The location's local name in use today is Kangilinnguit. The Arsuk Fjord approach is accessible by sea year-round, though with occasional ice-breaking assistance, and is known as an exceptionally scenic area.

References