(All material on this site is copywrite to the authors)
CRE Operation Crown was a SEATO project involving Commonwealth forces constructing an airfield with a one thousand five hundred metre runway. The site of this airfield is in the province of Leong Nok Tha in North East Thailand. The first blow was struck by sappers of 11 Independant Field Squadron Royal Engineers and a number of specialist personnel who were to form Crown HQ Troop. They arrived on New Years day 1964. They prepared the way for 59 Field Squadron who arrived in February 1964.
Other units involved were 54 Field Support Squadron, 34 Field Squadron, REME , RCT, RCS, RAMC, RA, Royal Australian Engineers, Royal New Zealand Engineers, 5001 RAF Airfield Construction Unit, and of course ACC personnel. The objective of this site is to record the story of this project by the people who made it happen, the service personnel who lived and worked on CRE Operation Crown. The local economy benefitted as jobs were created and filled by the people of Kok Talat and other villages.
The construction of the airfield spanned three years as the original tarmac strip was ruined by a combination of inadequate drainage and the fierce monsoon rains. It was relaid as a high grade 'Pozzolith' concrete strip, which is there to this day, abandoned and unused (photo's below).The sappers of 34 Fld Sqn finished the airfield and then started the 'Post Crown' operation. This entailed the building of a 'laterite' road to reach into the remote interior of North East Thailand.
The woman in the picture above is the daughter of one of the civilians who worked on the airfield. It was taken by John 'Nignoy' Little on the 18th September 2005 as was the picture below. Looks like it's been raining so it must have been the monsoon season.
The picture above was taken by Gene Ponce in 2001.
