Piva Airfield

The 71st Battalion built three taxiways with 35 hardstands, a shop area, seven nose hangars, three prefabricated steel huts, and 26 frame buildings.

The 77th Battalion arrived on Bougainville on 10 December 1943 and began constructing a fighter airfield parallel to the bomber field.

The construction of the airfields frequently took place under Japanese harassing fire such as the Bougainville counterattack, as the US forces never sought to occupy the entire island.

[3] On 8 March 1944 Japanese artillery opened up on Piva Airfield and destroyed one B-24 Liberator and three fighters and damaged nineteen other aircraft.

By early 1945 base roll-up and salvage operations had commenced and were completed by the end of June 1945.