WW2 – potential Japanese aerodromes and landing grounds in HK

IDJ: The attached document  appears to be asking the questions to which the BAAG was charged with finding the answers for, including those in your recent posting Kai Tak airport – BAAG Reports 1942-1944, plus other HK landing strips. 

The document is from the National Archives in London. There are many pages asking about dozens of airfields or potential airfields across China.

HF: Excluding Kai Tak we now have a list of about a further ten potential places for planes to use in HK during the Japanese occupation. Why so many even given the possibility towards the end of WW2 that Kai Tak would be so bombed as to be unuseable? And how many were actually developed and used? Even IDJ’s report concludes, “In view of their proximity to Kai Tak Aerodrome it is improbable that [at least three of the sites] are being developed as landing grounds”.

Elizabeth Ride’s BAAG reports included in the above article contain information about developments at Kai Tak including its expansion during the Japanese occupation.

There are also reports on several actual or potential aerodromes and “landing grounds” including:
Nam Tau
Kam Tin
Tai Ping
So Kun Wat
Pak Sha
Sha Kok

IDJ’s document mentions the following actual or possible aerodromes, landing grounds or “satellite landing grounds”. The latter was a new term for me and if it is to you try this to clarify.

1 Kai Tak aerodrome
2 Kam Tim landing ground
3 Kwanti Emergency Landing Ground
4 A “new satellite landing ground on the Parade Ground at HK Police Training School at the corner of Nathan and Prince Edward Road”.
5 “Preparation for a small satellite landing ground near So Kim Wat village”. I don’t know this village name but the co-ordinates provided suggest the location is the present day Harrow International School near HK Gold Coast.
So Kim Wat landing strip BAAG WW2
6 An area in Kowloon Tong boarded by the KCR, Cornwall Road [Street?], Waterloo Road and Norfolk Road
Airport Kowloon Tong
7 Finally, Sung Wong Toi (Sung Emporer’s Rock) ” up to” Kowloon Tong.
Sung Wong Toi is, or was, also known as Sacred Hill. From Wikipedia. Sung Wong Toi  is an important historic relic. While its remaining portion is now located in the Sung Wong Toi Garden (宋皇臺花園) in Ma Tau Wai, it was originally a 45 m tall boulder standing on the top of Sacred Hill (聖山) in  Mau Tau Chung ab0ve Kowloon BayDuring the Japanese Occupation of HK in 1941-1945 the boulder was dislodged from its place when the Sacred Hill was leveled for an extension of Kai Tak Airport.  A portion of the rock inscribed with Chinese characters survived the blasting operation. That part of the boulder, about one-third of its original size, displays the Chinese name of the stone, “Sung Wong Toi”.
Sung Wong Toi, Sacred Hill, Google map
BAAG - Kai Tak questions IDJ

Related Indhhk articles:

  1. Kai Tak airport – BAAG Reports 1942-1944, plus other HK landing strips 
  2. World War Two – Kai Tak airport, BAAG maps, sketches and plans

 

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