The White Falcon - 02.04.1993, Blaðsíða 3

post in 1943 to NAS Keflavik in 1993
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be a stepping stone in the middle of the North
tlantic Oceanfor military and civilian flights
'alike. Although the development of long-
range jet transport since the 1950s eventually
eliminated the need for much of the civilian
trans-Atlantic flights landing at the airfield,
its importance remains for short-legged mili-
tary tactical aircraft and civilian flights as
well as the very long-distance polar-route
flights between Europe and North America
or Japan. Its location is of great significance
over the responsibility for safeguarding Ice-
land as the British started to withdraw their
ground forces.
The Keflavik Airfield Project was initiated
in late 1941. It consisted of a bomber field for
heavy observation and bomber aircraft and a
smaller satellite field for air defense fighters.
The British forces had constructed Reykjavik
Airport which, with the arrival of American
forces, soon became too small and congested.
The planning for the new airfield
The builders’ task was truly formidable.
Iceland was at the end of a very long supply
pipeline. In addition, much of the work had
to be done in winter, under extremely harsh
weather conditions. However, good weather
and 24 hours of daylight during spring and
summer allowed for around the clock opera-
tions which expedited the work considera-
bly. Initially, American and Icelandic civil-
ians worked cm the project, but eventually the
job was taken over entirely by U.S. Navy
The predecessor of the Rotator? In fact it was. The Douglas DC-4 Sky master carried 60 passengers from New York to Keflavik in 14
non-pressurized hours with a short stop in Newfoundland. (Official U.S. Air Force file photo)
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to aviation safety, being the only airfield in
this part of the North Atlantic for landing in
an emergency. This has become of even
greater importance in the last decade with the
advent of the latest twin-engine airliners
operating more frequently on this route.
British forces occupied Iceland in May
1941, without consent, and established bases
which were to become vital in the struggle for
keeping the Atlantic lifelines open, as well as
[enying the Germans use of the island. The
flowing year, this time with Icelandic con-
sent, American forces started arriving to take
continued.
With construction commencing in early
1942, the smaller Patterson Field was par-
tially completed in the summer just in time to
see the movement of the 8th Air Force to
Britain.
The larger Meeks Field - named after LT
George B. Meeks of Edgewater, Maryland,
who died when his P-40 fighter aircraft
crashed at the Reykjavik Airfield on August
19,1941- was officially dedicated on March
24, 1943. Meeks was the first American
casualty in Iceland.
Construction Battalions (Seabees) and Army
Engineer Battalions.
With the field in full operation by the
spring of 1943, the traffic soon mounted in
concert with the rapid expansion of Ameri-
can forces in England. The airfield also saw
thousands of American and Canadian built
aircraft, destined for the British, pass through.
Much of this traffic was twin-engined air-
craft that had to stop-over in both Greenland
and Iceland.
In 1944, the year of the landing of allied
forces in Normandy, Keflavik saw the great-