 Group aircraft also dropped food and supplies to isolated parties in the interior of the island.Little more than a week after the last elements of the air echelon arrived in the Hollandia area, the group air echelon departed for the Mar Airstrip near Sansapor, linking up with its ground echelon, which had been there since late August, having arrived by ship from the Russell Islands.However, Mar was not ready for the group's planes and it operated from Middleburg Island for a few days until the pierced steel planking runway at Mar was ready.