Location of Puchwitschi airfield

[ejstuczko]

Gentlemen,
I cannot locate this airfield. Does anyone know where it was? III Gruppe./KG53 were stationed there Dec 1943-Jan 1944. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ed

[Larry deZeng]

Had you bought our book you could have looked it up:

deZeng, Henry L. IV and Douglas G. Stankey. Bomber Units of the Luftwaffe 1933-1945. 2 volumes. London: Ian Allan Publishing, 2007 and 2008. ISBNs (10) 1 903223 72 5 and (10) 1 903223 87 3.

III./KG 53

Operations in Central and South Russia. (Dec 43 - Apr 44)
1 Dec 43: reported 42 He 111H-16s on strength.
1-5 Dec 43: following three months of formation and bombing practice with new aircraft and replacement crews, ordered from Gablingen to Pukhovichi/62 km SE of Minsk for operations under Luftflotte 6. From there, flew ground support missions against forward Russian positions around Gorodok/33 km NNW of Vitebsk and interdiction missions against rail lines and traffic between Smolensk and Vitebsk.
15 Dec 43: (Lfl.4) - He 111H-16 shot down by AA fire at Yezerishche/72 km NNW of Vitebsk, 100%, 5 KIA; a second H-16 was shot up by fighters in the same vicinity, 1 KIA and 1 WIA.
25 Jan 44: support assignment in the Vitebsk area completed, transferred to Kaunas/Lithuania and then to Siauliai (Schaulen)/Lithuania on 31 Jan to begin strategic bombardment training under IV.Fliegerkorps.
9 Feb 44: ordered to Uman/W Ukraine before training could get underway to fly supply container missions over the Cherkassy pocket where more than 50,000 German troops had been cut off since 24-25 Jan. Some of Gruppe’s crews made up to 7 flights a night during the week before the 30,000 survivors were able to break out of the pocket.
21 Feb 44: returned to Siauliai and began long-distance day and night flights to sharpen the navigation skills needed for strategic bombing missions.


Puchowitschi (RUSS) (e. Pukhovichi) (53 32 N – 28 14 E)
General: landing ground in Belorussia in W Russia (to day Belarus) 62 km SE Minsk. Rated for bombers following extension by the Lw. in summer 1941. 1936 in use by the VVS as a fighter strip.
Air Units:
Station Units:

HLdeZ and DGS

[ejstuczko]

Thank you. I was just asking for the physical location for an airfield map.