Sakhalin Oblast
USEK Severo-Kurilsk
Man, this is one short runway. If we make it, we'll be heading south to another airport curiously named the same as this one. I hope the runway's longer.
For reasons that I'm sure are sound, the strait after the Second Kurilskiy Strait is the Fourth Kurilskiy Strait. Maybe because it's twice as big?
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Now there's something you don't see every day. The Ozero Kol'tsevoye.
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And moving on, another Kuril or two.
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The Proliv Kruzenshterna. A very wide strait with a dangerous current that can actually make whirlpools.
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And here's our stop. Matsuwa Island, mostly composed of Vulkan Sarycheva if you are looking from the north. Oddly, it is Matsuwa-to, mostly composed of Fuyo-san if you look at it from the south. Either way, the name derives from the Ainu for Hellmouth.
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Here we go. A vintage airport dating back to the Second War to End All Wars. The Imperial Japanese Army kept the 553rd Kokutai here with mostly Aichi D3A Val dive bombers. At one time there were upwards of 8,000 Japanese soldiers here. In 1944 it was a messy place to visit, what with the bombings by the Americans and the retaliatory sinking of submarines from shore mounted batteries by the Japanese. Fairly peaceful now. See ya.
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