Mellaha AB

  1923 to present

  Libya

CITY: Tripoli

IATA/ICAO CODES: MJI / HLLM

COORDINATES: 32°54'N / 13°17'E

OTHER NAMES: Mallaha AB (1923-1945), Wheelus AAF (1945-1947), Wheelus AFB (1948-1970), Okba Ben Nafi AB (1970-1995), Mitiga International (1995-present)

Right: Wheelus AFB after the war, seen from an aircraft overflying the Med.
Photo credit: Confessions of Ignorance / Blogspot

Mellaha Air Base was constructed in 1923 just East of Tripoli, as Libya had been recently colonized by Italy. After being used pre-war by the Italian Air Force, the airfield became a base for the German Luftwaffe during the North African Campaign. The Germans used Mellaha for short range, coastal and naval reconnaissance. Special weather reconnaissance units also existed at Mehalla. The main Luftwaffe unit stationed at the base was the 2^nd Staffel of the Aufklarungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14, equipped with 12 single-engined Henschel Hs126, as well as 3 Fieseler Fi156 Storch and a Junkers Ju52 for for liaison and transport.

Mellaha was captured by the British 8^th Army in January 1943. The airfield was immediately turned over to the USAAF which based the 376^th Bombardment Group (Heavy) there, with Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers conducting missions into Italy and southern parts of Germany. From April 1945, the Air Transport Command migrated from RAF Castel Benito, to the south of Tripoli, to Mellaha. The airfield became a stopover between Benghazi, Libya and Tunis, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-to-Dakar transport route. It was renamed Wheelus AAF on 17 May 1945, and Wheelus AFB from 1948 after a 1-year closure.

Wheelus AFB became one of the largest US air bases in the world outside the Continental US. It hosted Strategic Air Command units, fighter & fighter-bomber wings, and the USAF Military Air Transportation Service (MATS) 1603^rd Air Transport Wing, which flew C-47s and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus, and operated the base transport control center until 1952. MATS withdrew and relocated to Rhein Main AB, Germany in January 1953. MATS and later Military Airlift Command (MAC) aircraft were frequent visitors at Wheelus and maintained a small detachment there until the base's closure in 1970.

After the September 1969 revolution and the rise of Colonel Khaddafi to power, US forces left Wheelus which was turned into a Libyan airbase named Okba Ben Nafi AB. There, Soviet instructors trained Libyan crews on MiG17/19/25 fighters and Tu22 bombers. In 1986, the airfield was hit by a US airstrike as part of Operation El Dorado Canyon, aimed at various Libyan strategic military targets. From 1995, the airbase was turned into Mitiga Airport, a civilian airfield serving mainly domestic destinations. More recently, during the Libyan Civil War, Tripoli International Airport was destroyed and Mitiga served as the only remaining functional airport for the capital.

1262^nd AAF Base Unit (Mellaha AB) (April 1945 to unknown date)

Air Transport Command North African Wing / Division (April 1945 to unknown date)