Amarda road crash: Museum to be set up

A memorial service was held at Amarda Road airstrip at Rasgovindpur in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district for the 14 airmen who had died in a crash there in July 1945.
It was also proposed that a small museum be set up in the area to highlight the importance of the airbase during World War 11.
War historian Anil Dhir, eminent Gandhian Aditya Patnaik, staff of Gandhi Eye Hospital at Rangamatia, locals and school children paid homage to the dead airmen.
Wreaths were laid for each of the airmen during the memorial service held yesterday.
On the occasion, Aditya Patnaik proposed that he would give ample space in the Gandhi Gurukul in the area for setting up a small museum which will highlight the importance of the airbase during World War II.

Dhir said, he has promised that he would contact the British and US authorities for material to be displayed at the proposed museum.

A book on the history of the base and the crash would also be released on the next commemoration day, he said.
Dhir said, very few people know that two aircraft had collided with each other in Odisha causing the deaths of 14 airmen.
On July 26, 1945 two British Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator four-engine bombers, EW225 and EW247, collided at low altitude, he said.
The planes were part of a six-plane contingent from the Air Fighting Training Unit engaged in a formation flying exercise.

The 14 airmen who died in the crash belonged to six different nations, America, Britain, Netherlands, Canada, Australia and India, he said.
Rasgovindpur Airstrip, as it is known today, has an illustrious history which has never been made public.
It had the longest runway in Asia, more than 3.5 km long. The total runways, taxiways, aprons were more than 60 km, the war historian said.
Today, when one looks at the silent runway lying mostly vacant apart from a few odd cows grazing, one would find it difficult to associate the airport with activities of any kind, he said.
But, this airstrip had played a very important role during Second World War.

The station came into existence during the war as a forward airfield against the Japanese conquest of Burma. The large strip served its purpose well as a landing ground for planes and also as a training space for special bombing missions, he said.
Amarda Road airstrip, as it was called in war terminology, was spread over nearly 900 acres. Built in the 1940's at a cost of Rs 3 Crore, it was abandoned after the war.
Even today, seven decades after the base was made, one can still see the remains of the airfield, their 11,000 feet concrete runway still intact, though the buildings that once cluttered the edges are gone.

The offices, hangars, mechanic sheds and plaster walled barracks with thatched roofs that the soldiers called bashas have been ripped down. Instead, local women dry laundry and farmers their grain on the warm tarmac, Dhir said.