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Re: Major Gerhard Joachim - KG 53
Thank you Antun. Grass surface + poor drainage + September rains = slippery surface = aborted take-offs and accidents.
Gruda (YUGO) (42 32 00 N – 18 20 10 E) (AFHRA)
General: landing ground (Landeplatz) in wartime Croatia near the coast of Dalmatia 24 km SE of Dubrovnik and 5 km NW of the town of Gruda. History: used prewar by the Royal Yugoslav Air Force. No record found of any Luftwaffe air units being based here. Surface and Dimensions: grass surface with poor drainage measuring approx. 915 x 155 meters (1000 x 170 yards) and rectangular in shape. No paved runway. Infrastructure: none. The nearest rail connection was in Gruda. Dispersal: no organized dispersal facilities.
Remarks:
29 Nov 43: ordered evacuated and destroyed by Lw.-Kdo. Südost.
Operational Units: none identified.
Station Commands: unnumbered Flugplatzkdo. (1943).
Station Units (on various dates – not complete): elements of Flugmelde-Funk-Kp. z.b.V. 28 (Spilja, Jan 44).
[Sources: AFHRA A5264 p.133 (9 Jul 43); chronologies; BA-MA; NARA; PRO/NA; web site ww2.dk]
The book, Frka, Danijel, Josip Novak and Siniša Pogačić. La Force Aérienne Croate 1941 – 1945. Collection Histoire de L’Aviation Nº 10. Outreau (France): Editions Lela Presse, 2000. ISBN: 953-97564-0-4. Oversize Hb (heavy card cover). 303p. Profusely illus. Maps. Dwgs. Color profiles. Bibliography. Appendices, covers the Staffel from p.124 to p.139. All that is said is that the Staffel flew reconnaissance missions over the Adriatic during September 1943. At that time, according to the authors, Joachim was just the Luftwaffe Verbindungsoffizier (liaison officer) to the Croatian Kampfgruppe.
L.
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