Lipa Airfield Runway with Bomb Craters, 1945

Below, a picture of the Lipa Airfield, still in the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army, pockmarked with bomb craters likely from raids conducted by American planes in 1945. The picture has been extracted from Part I of a 1947 publication entitled “United States Army in World War II: Pictorial Record, the War against Japan.” The airfield above was likely what would eventually become Basilio Fernando Air Base. During the war, the Japanese referred to this airfield as Lipa West Airfield. There was, nearby in Calingatan in Mataasnakahoy, there was a second and smaller airfield which the Japanese referred to as Lipa East Airfield.

In the publication, the above picture was captioned: “Bomb Craters on the runway at Lipa Airfield in Batangas Province. In Southern Luzon, advancing U.S. units met at Lipa and continued the final mopping up of enemy resistance in the southern portion of the island.”

Lipa airfield pockmarked with bomb craters in 1945.

Since late 1944, the United States Army had been launching frequent raids not only on the two Airfields in Lipa but also on Batangas Airfield in what was then still the town of Batangas. These raids were being conducted by the Far East Air Force or the FEAF, the aerial arm of the United States Army in the Philippines. The planes flew nearby bases or from off aircraft carriers.

To read more about these air raids, please click the link provided below:

READ: “A Chronology of US Army Aerial Attacks on Batangas in 1945”

Notes and references:
The above picture was extracted from the 1947 publication United States Army in World War II: Pictorial Record, the War Against Japan.