Question on runways

[Kutscha]

In the graphics it says 'concrete and wood chippings'. Why wood chippings?

[Larry deZeng]

Availability? Wood chips were available from local sawmills, while sand would have to be trucked in from the coast? Just speculation..................

L.

[Kutscha]

A possibility Larry. But, aggregate is fine (sand) and coarse (crushed rock).

Do you know if the Germans or other European air forces did this?

[bearoutwest]

Wood chips used cover the surface to break up the "shininess" (shiny-ness?) of the runway under moonlight. See extract from US Army manual c.1943.
...geoff


google search reference:
https://books.google.com.au/books?id...uction&f=false

[Kutscha]

Thank you bearoutwest.

Wouldn't the wood chips become FODs tho?

[Larry deZeng]

Originally Posted by Kutscha

A possibility Larry. But, aggregate is fine (sand) and coarse (crushed rock).

Do you know if the Germans or other European air forces did this?

Wood planking in the far north? Yes. But I have seen no mention of wood chips. The Russians, on the other hand, seem to have used anything available:

"The total number of VVS military airfields across the entire USSR by the end of 1941 was to be 275 permanent (mostly with concrete, macadam, or even dirt, sand and gravel runways that were rolled and hardened) and 1,543 operational for a total of 1,818 airfields."

"VVS operational airfields or field airstrips (Feldflugplätze) were to have a runway measuring 1200 x 200 meters or as close to that as the terrain and other factors permitted. After the location was selected by a special team from the airfield regional command (RAB), elements of the airfield engineer construction battalion (IAB) arrived with their clearing, leveling, trench-digging and rolling equipment. What trucks that could be made available were brought up and these were augmented by ox-carts from the collective farms to help haul dirt, crushed rock, gravel and sand. Typically, the runways and often the taxiways for a field airstrip consisted of laying down a base of sand in a staked-out leveled area of the specified dimensions and then this was rolled out. Next, gravel was brought in to cover the sand, leveled and then this was rolled and packed. Elsewhere, wood planking laid on a peat sub-surface was used to build runways for some airfields in heavily forested areas, such as those in the far north on the Karelian Front. Wire mesh and perforated steel planking (PSP or Marston Mat) were only used by the Russians for those airfields where the USAAF might be based (e.g., Poltava, Piryatin and Mirgorod), at least through August 1944, according to German sources. Only then did the steel mats start to come into general use in the front area. By the end of the war, U.S. Lend-Lease had delivered 50,451,000 sq.ft. (4,687,051 square meters) of PSP to Russia, enough for 240 runways each measuring 640 meters (2,100 ft.) x 30.5 meters (100 ft.)."

[Sources: Loza, Dmitriy. Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s & the Air War Against Germany. Lawrence (KS): Univ. Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN: 0-7006-1140-1. Führungsstab Ic (Fremde Luftwaffen Ost)/OKL, Nr 25891/44 geheim, 12. Sep. 1944, Einzelnachrichten des Ic Dienstes Ost der Luftwaffe Nr.31, Ausbau SU-Feldflugplätzen.

L.

[Kutscha]

Interesting Larry, thank you.

[bearoutwest]

Just for fun - don't forget about the floating runways!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_and_Clover


...geoff