Abandoned Baileytown farms, 1943. Note military
targets in fields.
Immediately south of the Millville Airport and extending almost to Dividing
Creek, the United States Government acquired 18,000 acres, covering 20 square
miles, for use as an aerial target area. Every property owner in
this area was required to sell their property to the War Department or risk
having it taken through condemnation.
Baileytown, being located just south of the airport, was the ideal location for
a planned gunnery range.
The construction of targets began in late 1942 immediately
after the last family had moved out. Two sets of scoring ranges were built
just below the airfield. Each range had six earth-covered bunkers with
targets that could be raised by soldiers inside. Additional targets, scattered throughout the
area, were wooden replicas of
military targets such as ships, trains, convoys, airplanes, and ammo dumps.
There were many abandoned houses and farm buildings deep within the range.
No deliberate attempt was made to remove or destroy them, but a forest
fire started by tracer bullets soon after the range opened burned thousands of
acres and many of these buildings. The remaining structures became "targets of
opportunity." By the end of the war, Baileytown was in ruins.
War Department's "Option for Purchase of Land" from a
Baileytown property owner
Wooden replicas of military targets
Millville Army Air Field
