page_title: Barakoma Airfield
hierarchical_section_title: Barakoma Airfield
caption_attribution_description: Vella Lavella airfield in the solomons on 10 December 1943. Visible U.S. Marine Corps Vought F4U-1 Corsair aircraft of Marine fighter squadrons VMF-123 and VMF-124, Grumman F6F-3 Hellcats, a Douglas SBD Dauntless, and RNZAF Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.IV (P-40F) on the primitive runway at Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands, which was seized in the summer of 1943 and served as a base of operations to support landings by Allied forces in the Treasury Islands and at Cape Torokina, Bougainville. The swift advance of Allied forces in the South Pacific soon bypassed Vella Lavella and the airfield ceased operations in September 1944, less than a year after the first aircraft arrived.
context_page_description: Barakoma Airfield is a former World War II airfield on Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands archipelago.
context_section_description: Barakoma Airfield is a former World War II airfield on Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands archipelago.
caption: Barakoma Airfield December 1943
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26"}