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Re: Luftwaffe airfields - coordinates
Nice work, FrankieS!
However, I would like to add a comment. None of these "airfields" appear in the Ries/Dierich work, Fliegerhorste, or the Mattiello reference Fliegerhorstkommandanturen und Flugplätze der deutschen Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Einsatzorte und Einsatzzeiten. Nor are they mentioned in the A.I.2.(b)/Air Ministry lists that cover all of the wartime aerodromes, airfields, landing grounds and emergency landing grounds in all of the European and North African countries during the war years. But I think I know the reason for this. On various dates in late 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Luftwaffe ordered its regional commands, such as Kommandierender General der deutschen Luftwaffe in Ungarn, to begin setting up a large number of dispersal fields and satellite fields in the vicinity of established Luftwaffe airfields. This usually took the form of farm fields and meadowland that had been cleared of obstacles like fences, tree limbs, large stones, etc., and approved for landings and take-offs. More often than not, they were not used because the need to do so did not occur. In France, for example, there were nearly 400 of these prepared between Dec 43 and Jul 44. I think this may be what we have here with these 5 or 6 places: alternative landing sites set up in the last years of the war as Allied air power made the established airfields at times too dangerous for operations.
Larry
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