Deep north's secret role in scoring victory over the Japanese The scattered wreckage of a Liberator bomber, the rusted hulks of trucks and military hardware long ago abandoned and the unusually long airstrip are today all that remains of the "top-secret" Truscott Airbase in the Kimberley. Located in rugged terrain on the isolated Anjo Peninsula within easy striking distance of Indonesia, Truscott played a strategic role in helping stall the Japanese advance in World War II. As the war turned, it became a springboard for a concerted Allies air offensive. Hundreds of RAAF and US Air Force missions flew from and through Truscott, targeting enemy shipping, garrisons and occupied ports in Java, Bali and Timor. Reconnaissance flights spied on troop movements and supply routes as far north as Borneo and Celebes (now Sulawesi). Some of the wreckage today. Between 1944 and 1946 it was home for 1500 defence personnel, including pilots and maintenance staff, and about 40 Aborigines recruited from a nearby mission. A former senior curator at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, John White, said the landing strip was built in secrecy in 1944; its existence was not acknowledged until years after the war had ended. In recent years Truscott, because of its historic wartime role, has been recognised as a place of national significance by the National Trust of Western Australia. It is currently being proposed for inclusion on the Register of the National Estate," he said. A Chevrolet 'Blitz" truck dumped at the edge of Truscott base after the end of the Second World War. Mr White, who recently retired, said the landing strip was built in a little over 12 weeks. Japan had been attacking Australia since 1942 and had hit Darwin hard. There were big air battles over where Truscott was finally established," he said. Until 1943, the Japanese were conducting shuttle bombing raids on Darwin. Drysdale, another much smaller airstrip in the Kimberley, had also been bombed, along with an Aboriginal mission. Truscott was the closest point in Australia to Japanese strategic positions in the Indonesian archipelago. It was as close as you could get on mainland Australia to Java. It saved air time by reducing the number of air miles to be flown and that also meant planes could carry bigger bomb loads because they were flying shorter distances. In recent years there have been attempts to celebrate the memory of Truscott and those who served at the base. Founding president of the Truscott base tribute committee Howard Young said an Anzac Day memorial service was held at the site and there was a reunion involving 250 former servicemen. Spitfire pilot and crew at Truscott airbase in 1945. Photo: Courtesy of Australian Military The reunion was held on March 23 to mark the day in 1945 when 11 crew and one unidentified passenger were killed when a fully laden Liberator A72-80 bomber crashed and exploded during a night take-off. Nobody knows why the Liberator crashed; some believe it bounced on the uneven runway and the pilot over-corrected. Mr Young, in his 80s, said memorial services were much harder to organise these days. Many of those who served are unfortunately no longer around. According to Mr White, Japan's imperial command made a big effort to find and destroy the base, but never did. They dispatched a ground party that scoured the Kimberley region for 10 days; they sent reconnaissance aircraft and submarines to scan the shoreline. A bomb aimer with the RAAF 24 Squadron Jim Cunningham recounts, in a letter sent to historians John and Carol Beasy, details of a typical mission from Truscott: We carried out an anti-shipping sweep embracing the Lombok Strait, Bali coastline and Soebawa. We caught a small convoy off the north-east tip of Bali, bombing and sinking a small ship ... strafing and setting on fire a small lugger. In the Lombok Strait: "We destroyed a large cargo vessel within a few minutes of contact. I remember thinking the bombs must have gone strait down the funnel because it blew up, disintegrated and sank within minutes. From Truscott, Mosquito fighters, stripped of weaponry so they could fly higher and faster than the formidable Japanese Zero, flew reconnaissance missions deep into the heart of Japanese-occupied territory, going as far north as Borneo and Singapore. Historical accounts reveal conditions at the base were harsh. Men were accommodated in corrugated iron huts with dirt floors they shared with giant centipedes and snakes. The food was bully beef and crackers occasionally supplemented with fresh barramundi caught in traps. The toilets were of the open pit variety. Today Truscott, renamed Mungalalu Truscott in respect of the traditional owners, is the largest all-weather airstrip in the far north of the Kimberley region. It is used by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to monitor boat arrivals, as well as the Paspaley Pearling Company and Santos Oil to fly in workers and supplies. Mr White says Truscott is unique and should be preserved and registered as part of the National Estate. Sites like this are very rare. It played a short, intense and active role in the war effort. It's important that it be recognised and preserved as intact as is possible as it represents a vital part of our wartime heritage.