The day after the landing at Nadzab, the aviation engineer who had built the airdrome at Marilinan, landed a Cub plane in the jungle and arranged for Australians and natives to prepare a strip for transport planes. This was the prelude to the arrival of two airborne engineer battalions, from Marilinan and Port Moresby, and the rapid construction of new airfields in the Markham Valley, behind the Japanese position at Lae which held out for ten more days.