Scenery Object Mystery!

MaskRider

MaskRider

Tiller of Soil
Guys! I need some help!

I am working on Marpi Point Airfield and have run across some pointy tower-like structures in one of the Marpi photos that I don't recall ever seeing before. I'm wondering if someone can identify them. I have circled them (4 in the left hand circle, 1 in the right hand circle) in the attached image:
View attachment 18910View attachment 18914

Also, and this is sort of a scenery object request :wavey: Note in the picture above that I also marked the large Quonsets- I believe that these are the two story structures pictured in better detail below:
View attachment 18912Nice, huh? These things were all over the Marianas.

For instance. Here is a head on picture of the Marpi Field Tower- its a tower ( a very cool and very much standard style tower by this time in the war) combined with one of those two story quonsets with a couple of one story Quonset wings on either side.
View attachment 18911

Anyhow, just thought I would throw out the two story Quonsets and the tower as ideas.

Also, please if some one can identify those pointy tower like buildings circled in the first photo I would appreciate it!

Thanks
MR
 
BTW, after looking more closely at detail from the first photo I am thinking that maybe the circled object under the right hand "what is it?" arrow is the Marpi Field Tower structure.
 
MR I think I would go with Bob on them being tanks of some sort whether fuel or water no idea.
 
MR, what date are you working too?

Here's a pic dated 16/6/44

View attachment 18945

Are you sure of the dates of your photo's?

Those structures remind me of the old V2 housing that you lot were playing with in 46/47.

regards Collin:ernae:
 
Hi MR,
I think you worked that one out for yourself, that the RH circled item on the airfield photo IS the photo with the control tower and large rounded hangar/nissen directly beside it.

The other row of structures a few hundered yards away look to me like they have some height similar to the control tower?

If water supply is scarce and of low pressure, then four water towers?

Or could they be parachute practice towers?

Have you looked on Google Maps etc etc to see if there's any evidence of what was there?

Doubt there will be detailed photos of the area but you never know.....

Cheers

Shessi
 
Hiya Shessi,

Or could they be parachute practice towers?
Click to expand...

That's interesting! My first thought was that maybe they were some sort of parachute related structures. I was thinkin more along the lines of places to hang them out to dry or something (hehe, what do I know?!). I had never seen anything like them before.

Fuel storage tanks were usually kept well away from the airfield proper- in tank farms, etc.. Water towers were never given such a prominent place- that I have ever seen. Doesn't mean that they aren't fuel or water tanks, of course.

What is particularly odd is their location close to the edge of what seems to be an asphalt paved service apron. But can it be a service apron? Those 4 "towers" just don't seem to fit with a service apron. However- that "service apron" seems to be there specifically to provide access to those towers- whatever they are.

Probably going to remain a mystery.

But we can keep the thinking caps on. Thanks every one for lending the little gray cells!
MR
 
Those structures remind me of the old V2 housing that you lot were playing with in 46/47.
Click to expand...
Hiya Collin!

You know in all of my googling around the only images of structures that even came close were images of old V2 housing. But when I saw what they were used for I thought- naaahh, that can't be it!

But you know that is probably just what they are. Marpi was used after the war as sort of a hush hush intelligence related type airfield. Although Marpi Point would seem a heck of a long way to go to get a little privacy- but then again- the open Pacific was a good safe testing range.

And no, I am not at all sure of the dates on that photo- or of many of the photos I have of Marpi- except that I am almost positive the one you posted is unfinished pre-invasion Japanese Marpi Field.

I am gonna see if I can find those V2 housing pictures again. You don't happen to have one handy do you?

Thanks, Collin!
MR
 
Hi Mask,
Well, whatever those are they are huge when compared to the aircraft lined up.
And it's a naval airbase also...hmmm
 
Right, it's a naval airbase then.

Could they be diver training towers or UET - Underwater Escape Training towers. Filled with seawater to simulate depth for submariners/divers etc etc?

hmm...interesting Mr Bond, very interesting...

Shessi
 
Actually, the more I look at that right hand circled object, I am not so sure that it is the Control Tower/Quonset structure. It's a clear enough picture that the open frame work of the tower would be visible. I have a gut that Tower/Quonset structure is more likely located in the "V" formed by the taxiways leading to the runway on the right side of the photo. Notice that Mt Marpi does not show in the background, as it would if it were that right hand circled structure. However, if it were facing the runway with its back to the sea it would appear as it does in the photo- even down to the detail of the Quonset huts (visible on the right background) exactly where you would expect to see them in the messing/birthing area behind the tower
 
Shessi said:
Right, it's a naval airbase then.

Could they be diver training towers or UET - Underwater Escape Training towers. Filled with seawater to simulate depth for submariners/divers etc etc?

hmm...interesting Mr Bond, very interesting...

Shessi
Click to expand...

That is a good thought, Shessi. But 4 of them (maybe more)? I don't know. Even at New London Connecticut Sub Base I think we still only have the one underwater escape training tower.

Hmmmm...
 
Collin said:
MR, what date are you working too?

Here's a pic dated 16/6/44

View attachment 18945

Are you sure of the dates of your photo's?
Click to expand...

The date on the photo I posted above is 1945- no month just the year. But it pretty well matches up with other photos I have from around the same time.

Here is an interesting diagram- contemporary to or prior to it being built. It shows two runways. I am positive that it was never completed to these specifications and that the second runway only ever went as far as seen in the 1945 photo.

View attachment 18955

Here are two photos that as far as I can tell were both taken during the war- maybe late 44 or so.

View attachment 18956View attachment 18957

Finally I have this one which is labeled as "marpi-just-after-war.jpg". Don't know if that is so or not.

View attachment 18958
MR
 
MR,
FWIW, if the rightmost circled object is NOT the control tower, then where is the tower in that first photo in your first post ? I've looked all over that photo twice and can't see anything else that is tall enough to be a control tower, that is also close enough to the runway.

Like you, looking at the photo of the tower and its orientation, you would think that you would see at least a part of one or two of the other "tower" things behind it. When I looked closely at that photo earlier, I thought I could see some of the fields and trees that are part of the mountain side, but closer examination now shows that it's actually the image of whatever was printed on the other side of the paper on which that photo appears.

As for the mystery "towers", and indeed the way that the "control tower" appears in the photos in your first post, is it possible that they are covers / tarpaulins / sheeting erected around the things while they were actually being built ? I say this because, despite the magnification used on the second photo, there's still enough resolution to determine that the "towers" have very few straight edges as buildings tend to do ...
Hope that helps,
Ro
:ernae:
 
BTW Here is the layout I am building to. Its a bit of a hybrid. All of the roads outside of the area seen in the attached screenie will be made using G2K. The A16 flatten required to include them in a custom ground poly interferes too much with the appearance of the coast. Therunway is asphalt only for construction purposes- so I can tell where it is. It will be finished with a coral surface.
 
rohan said:
MR,
FWIW, if the rightmost circled object is NOT the control tower, then where is the tower in that first photo in your first post ? I've looked all over that photo twice and can't see anything else that is tall enough to be a control tower, that is also close enough to the runway.

Like you, looking at the photo of the tower and its orientation, you would think that you would see at least a part of one or two of the other "tower" things behind it. When I looked closely at that photo earlier, I thought I could see some of the fields and trees that are part of the mountain side, but closer examination now shows that it's actually the image of whatever was printed on the other side of the paper on which that photo appears.

As for the mystery "towers", and indeed the way that the "control tower" appears in the photos in your first post, is it possible that they are covers / tarpaulins / sheeting erected around the things while they were actually being built ? I say this because, despite the magnification used on the second photo, there's still enough resolution to determine that the "towers" have very few straight edges as buildings tend to do ...
Hope that helps,
Ro
:ernae:
Click to expand...

Hiya Rohan,

Thanks for the input. Its got me stymied for sure. I won't let it hold me up- but it sure would be nice to know just what those goofy things are.

WRT: where is the tower in that first photo in your first post ?
OK, here is the way I read it- don't know if would take it to the bank- but here goes: In the front view photo of the control tower there are two keys for me as noted in attachment below:
View attachment 18961

Those two Quonsets showing side on in the background and the fact Mt Marpi doesn't take up the entire background-as it would if it were there- are key points for me. They convince me that this picture was taken facing NE- looking in direction of open ocean. If the tower were located so that the end of the first SW->NE row of Quonsets shows in the background- which they seem to- then the tower must be located as indicated in the second screenie below- nicely situated to the runway. And if one looks real carefully and uses liberal amounts of imagination there does seem to be something there at that location that jibes with that Control Tower structure. So, that's my take on it.

View attachment 18962

WRT your suggestion that perhaps the ill defined outline of those "mystery" towers may indicate that they are some sort of unfinished framework or perhaps scaffolding covered with tarps- that is a definite possibility. Good idea. I wonder what what was being covered though? Maybe it was a USO show coming thru and those are tarps covering the light and speaker scaffolds? :)

MR
 
The scenery layout screenie it shows it pretty well, too. I have it set up the way I think it was. Note that there is little question about the location and orientation of the quonset huts. Almost certain that they were located just there.
View attachment 18963
 
MR,
agreed about the location of the control tower, especially after looking at the middle left photo in your post #15 again. I do find it a bit confusing about the quonsets in the background of the tower photo though. In that photo, they seem to be side on, but in the other larger view photo, the quonsets that would be behind the tower look as if they would be end on if the directional arrow was indeed the direction in which the camera was pointing ...

And another thought - given the lack of precise dates on some of these photos, is it possible that the ones in your first post represent the original idea for the location of the control tower where construction had been started (to a degree) ? Then, before the tower was completed, it was decided that there was a better location on the opposite side of the runway (for whatever reason). At the same time, perhaps it was also decided that the other "towers" were unnecessary ...

No worries though, you're doing a great job as always,
regs,
Ro
 
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