WWII Batchelor & Gould airbase and Dutch 18SQN B25 Wreckages

[jeff_LTT]

For me (as a B25 maintainer) this was an highlight on my 8000km roadtrip through Aussie! Seeing the airfield where the Dutch B25's were stationed during WWII gave me some real goosebumps! And i was very lucky to have some contacts who made it possible for me to see 2 Dutch B25 wreckages, the N5-133 and N5-139! They are aircraft who have really seen war! And you can clearly see that on the photos! Luckily all the guys involved with the accidents have survived! The Dutch B25's were stationed at Batchelor airport together with some Australian ones and also on Gould airport there were aircraft stationed to fight against the Japanese, The camp was right in between both airstrips which are only 2km's apart from eachother.

Batchelor airstrip:







Gould Airstrip:





Aircraft parking area:





Taxi track:



N5-139:



N5-133:

[mart]

Unexpected but cool post!

[airman]

Old Relics !!!!!!

[Sunbeam]

Nice to see these historic airstrips. Nothing remains of buildings/hangars?

[mirage 69]

Wow..thats very special!
Nice report,

[Stephan Lodewijks]

I've got goose bumps after only seeing these photos.....not to mention what it can do to someone visiting the place!! All those taxitracks, dispersals and runways....wow. And two Dutch B-25 wrecks to top it all!! Great report!

Stephan

[Wijgert IJlst]

Great historic stuff you post here, quite interesting...
Could be nice if the new NMM (Nationaal Militair Museum) would salvage one of these Mitchell wrecks for display within the musuem.

[jeff_LTT]

I've got goose bumps after only seeing these photos.....not to mention what it can do to someone visiting the place!! All those taxitracks, dispersals and runways....wow. And two Dutch B-25 wrecks to top it all!! Great report!

Stephan

It gave me goose bumps as well when i walked around there, you can strongly feel the history! It is like being in that era of time! I also got more than 3kg of runway from Batchelor and Gould

[jeff_LTT]

Great historic stuff you post here, quite interesting...
Could be nice if the new NMM (Nationaal Militair Museum) would salvage one of these Mitchell wrecks for display within the musuem.

It certainly is a very nice idea, they want to restore the N5-133 and make a display in their museum, but that will probably take some years because they have only a hand ful of volunteers...
They only have a half B25 for Display in Australia, they are working on that as well..
And as far is i know about the NMM they wanted to hang their B25 on the ceiling of the new hangar, if you do that you will never be able to make the machine flyable again, it is a shame because she is in great condition, you only need someone with some money

[Coert Munk]

Nice to see these historic airstrips. Nothing remains of buildings/hangars?

Hangars? Buildings?
It was Down Under man! crews in tents, maintenance in open air, etc. See the history books. Hangars were in places as Canberra, Brisbane, etc

[jeff_LTT]

Nice to see these historic airstrips. Nothing remains of buildings/hangars?

Hangars? Buildings?
It was Down Under man! crews in tents, maintenance in open air, etc. See the history books. Hangars were in places as Canberra, Brisbane, etc

That is True Coert, i have been in between Batchelor and Gould airstrip where the Dutch/Australian compound was, there was nothing, only some corroded oil drums, iron gulfplates, and a sharp 7,62mm bullet. I have seen more airstrips like Hughes, Gorrie, MC Donald, Strauss, Hughes, Livingstone where i found nothing, only at Daly Waters i found a hangar and a C47 wreckage (see other post)
Batchelor stil is an active airstrip with a couple of 1 engined prop aircraft and a parachute school and some modern day hangars.