Morotai, Long Awaited Info.

[HarvardIV]

Hello Folks:

I finally go the new information on Morotai after waiting a long time. A gentleman from Hungary who's been there several times told me the news, here it is:

Hi Chris,

> safe from terrorists and extremists?

Yes.
What a question! ))

> Was it hard to find a hotel?

No - see my page.

> What days in the week does the boat leave from Ternate? How about the plane?

Can't remember - ask in Ternate.

> Is it hard to get hotels or flights?

Hotels not, planes quite possibly yes.

> Lastly, I am interested in planes. Are there any WW2 airplanes left at the
Morotai scrapyard?

There is almost nothing left.
Evewrything has been dismantled for scrap metal.

[tom d. friedman]

hi chris, since my dad fought on morotai in ww 2 w/ the 31st infantry division as a rifle company commander i have kept tabs on the happenings their. i new long ago that morotai was clean of planes as of 1988 when a big scrap drive was mounted. damned shame!! i always wished that their was some plane in a remote obscure swamp or something. long shot at best!! i still want to travel their, & retrace his combat foot steps from new western guinea to morotai to mindanoa phillppines. 1 bird i would have loved to have found is "piss call charlie" a crow my dad caught & tamed / trained as a pet while on the island. pretty cool i think. best, tom

[Tony]

Did the natives also dig out the huge pit dump?

[tom d. friedman]

tony, don't know about that 1!! enlighten me!!

[HarvardIV]

I doubt it, and I think it would depend on the amount of underbrush that grew on the planes. Also keep in mind the guy I mentioned in the first post was adamant that nothing resembling a plane was visible.

Thanks,

Chris

[agent86]

It aint gonna happen

[HarvardIV]

What ain't gonna happen. I'm not going out there?

Chris

[Tony]

Tom

When they built the runways at Peto N, S, E, W etc etc , they excavated a huge pit , as they used crushed coral for the runways.

They then filled the pit with aeroplanes.

Not sure if they were dug out in the 88 scrap drive, but it's worth running a metal detector over the area.

A clue, we want a nice BIG return on the detector, because little ones will probably go bang.

[george]

In 1989, a Dutchman, Anton Rijsdijk, who was employed by the Indonesian government, spent his spare time photographing the war wreckage on and around Morotai. Don't know if he was there earlier than '89 as well.

[HarvardIV]

Hi George:

Have you tried to contact him?

Thanks,

Chris

[george]

No, Chris. Sorry, I don't know who he is, and that was 15 years ago that he was photo-documenting all the wrecks. I was hoping someone on here would maybe know of him, and if he's still alive, if he still lives and works in Indonesia, etc.

[HarvardIV]

Hi George:

I know another guy who went to Morotai, and I'll ask him the same questions I asked the other gentleman in the first post.

Thanks,

Chris

[george]

Chris - I finally obtained an article on an Australian veteran who went back to Morotai in '89, 40 years after he was stationed there. After several detailed (but friendly) interviews with the police, he was allowed to visit his old Australian airfield, Wama, but the old American strip was off-limits. He wanted to visit his old campsite, but the road was closed. Wama was reverting to jungle, but he was still able to walk its entire length. Pieto is closed to visitors, except on civil flights. I found it interesting that along the east coast, he was shown some large American dumps in ravines covered by jungle. Other dumps had already been removed by scrappers. What was heartbreaking was that the natives had a "factory" (as they called it) where they were converting(dismantling) old aircraft remains into decorative products.

And to prove how rough this area is, 3 Japanese warships in the water off of Ternate, where he caught an old boat to Morotai, are being accosted and overtaken by the jungle! It was starting to cover the anti-aircraft guns and approaching the bridge on one in '89.

[HarvardIV]

Hi George:

You wrote:

Chris - I finally obtained an article on an Australian veteran who went back to Morotai in '89, 40 years after he was stationed there. After several detailed (but friendly) interviews with the police, he was allowed to visit his old Australian airfield, Wama, but the old American strip was off-limits. He wanted to visit his old campsite, but the road was closed. Wama was reverting to jungle, but he was still able to walk its entire length. Pieto is closed to visitors, except on civil flights. I found it interesting that along the east coast, he was shown some large American dumps in ravines covered by jungle. Other dumps had already been removed by scrappers. What was heartbreaking was that the natives had a "factory" (as they called it) where they were converting(dismantling) old aircraft remains into decorative products.

And to prove how rough this area is, 3 Japanese warships in the water off of Ternate, where he caught an old boat to Morotai, are being accosted and overtaken by the jungle! It was starting to cover the anti-aircraft guns and approaching the bridge on one in '89.

A few questions I have are: Which airstrip is the American strip you refer to? Isn't that the main base in the south coast that is well known?

Where is Wama? I thought, maybe wrongly, that the Australians and Americans all shared the same base?

My guess is that there were 7 runways parallel, and that they were actually two parallel bases. One American and one Australian. Is this correct? That would explain why (Pieto?) 2 runways are still in use by the TNI-AU, and as a result off limits.

Is there anyway I could contact this Australian fellow, and clarify some questions all of us have?

I'd also like to get specifics on the locations of Wama, Pieto, the other base if there is one, and the scrapyards in ravines--which I didn't see in the AWMｐｈｏｔｏｓ．

[george]

Chris - I finally got my hands on After The Battle Number 68, which contained this article. The man's name is George Battley, and he and his two sons started out from Perth, so I guess he lives near there. There are some great pictures, as well as alot of information. It sounds to me like the U.S. and Australian bases may have been near each other, but I really don't know for sure.

Mr. Battley felt like he was the only veteran that has returned to Morotai, although many Vets return to their other Pacific duty stations. He said thousands were stationed at Morotai during the war, yet he seemed to be the only one to return.

I got the feeling from reading his account that many ravines are full of equipment, but that he was only shown what they wanted seen. Remember, the road to his old camp was closed when he visited.