Emirau Island

Emirau Island, also called Emira, is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago located at coord|1|38.5|S|149|58.5|E|display=inline,title. It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The local language is a dialect of the Mussau-Emira language. Early explorers named it Squally Island, a name still found in some early records.Emirau island was used during WWII as an American airbase. Several United States Marine Corps and Royal New Zealand Air Force bomber squadrons were based here including VBM 433 [http://www.vmb433.com/] , VMB 611 [http://www.vmb611.com/] and No. 3 Squadron RNZAF [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2AirF-c17-3.html] No. 8 Squadron RNZAF, No. 9 Squadron RNZAF, No. 1 Squadron RNZAF and No. 4 Squadron RNZAF [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2AirF-c19-8.html] . The Royal New Zealand Air Force fighter squadrons based here were No. 19 Squadron RNZAF, No. 22 Squadron RNZAF, No. 23 Squadron RNZAF, No. 25 Squadron RNZAF and No. 14 Squadron RNZAF [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2AirF-c19-8.html] . Emirau was the staging point for attacks on the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul.