flugplatz Lemonsky

[Pesel##]

As for suggestion that Lemonsky=Leninsky, I honestly doubt. Russians haven't changed the towns' names during their almost two years "administration" in Eastern Poland and Baltic States- they have just translated them (i.e. Kaunas into Kovno). Leninsky would rather indicate Russian soil, but we all know this wasn't the case that time.

[edwest]

I would try Lemonski. It is likely Polish.



Ed

[Pesel##]

Sounds like a drink, but it's not Polish.

[Artur PK]

I think it's Leoniszki (lit. Leoniškės), 5 km E of Bujwidze (lit. Buivydžiai).
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leoniszki

[edwest]

Originally Posted by Artur PK

I think it's Leoniszki (lit. Leoniškės), 5 km E of Bujwidze (lit. Buivydžiai).
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leoniszki

In Lithuania?



Ed

[Artur PK]

Before war in Poland, now on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.

[oquaig]

Yes, what is it about II./JG 53 that is so hard track down? What we do know is that the Group was at Neusiedl until 25 June when it moved to Lemonsky. The 25th was also the last day they scored any kills for the remainder of June. In John Weal's book he states that the Group "were employed primarily on uneventful freie ]agd patrols along the Baltic coastline (when not being scrambled in response to yet another Red Air Force bombing raid)."

First, I don't think they went to Vilnius. That was VIII Fkiegerkorps zone of operations and if they had they would have seen a lot more action. Now, correct me if I am wrong, when all the fighter groups displaced forward in June and early July they moved to former Soviet airfields. I attached a map showing where JG 54 Groups moved to. If II./JG 53 was patrolling the baltic coastline, it seems logical that it would have moved closer to the coast, that leaves out Kaunas and Kedainiai. I have looked at Siauliai but can not find any VVS air fields with towns or villages with names resembling Lemonsky or could be garbled into a germanized form. Then I thought maybe they went to Liepaja (Libau, now Klaipeda), but that airfield was in artillery range of the Soviet garrison and the port didn't fall to the 291st Infantry Division until 29 June.

My working theory at the moment is that they went Memel. At the time II./JG 53 moved the VVS was launching day and night raids against Memel and Koenigsberg. (See the second attached map). If you look at the map Memel had three landing at Memel and the civilian airfield. Maybe one of those three landing fields is Lemonsky, then again maybe not. We won't know until we get information about them, and maybe someone knows. Otherwise I am fairly certain II./JG 53 moved North with JG 54 and remained under Fliegerkorps I control and if not in Memelland it was in Lithuania.

[Larry deZeng]

Oquaig,

Not much of an airfield:

VVS Airfield near Memel (Klaipeda):
Priekule (Grabsten)/18 km SE of Klaipeda (Memel) on the coast of Lithuania.

Klaipėda (LITH) (a.k.a. Memel-Rumpischken) (55 41 50 N - 21 09 30 E) (AFHRA)
General: emergency landing ground (Notlandeplatz) in present-day Lithuania on the Baltic coast and located 2 km SE of the city. History: 1927 listed as a civil/commercial landing ground (Verkehrslandeplatz). Surface and Dimensions: drained grass surface measuring approx. 595 x 550 meters (650 x 600 yards). Infrastructure: no information found.
Operational Units: 4.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 21 (Jun 41).
Station Commands: none identified.
Station Units (on various dates – not complete): Stab/Flak-Rgt. 6 (mot.) (Dec 44); Stab III.(Flum.Mess)/Ln.-Rgt. 260 (Sep 44 – Jan 45)?; part of Lw.-Bau-Btl. 108/VI (K) (Oct-Nov 44); Ldssch.Zug d.Lw. 314/VI (Jun 41); elements of Sanitätsbereitschaft (mot) d.Lw. 7/VII (or 7/XVII?) (fall 44).
[Sources: AFHRA A5258 p.959 (1944); chronologies; BA-MA; NARA; PRO/NA; web site ww2.dk]

If Memel had 3 "airfields" in June 1941, then the other two must have been satellite airstrips hastily built by the Soviets between summer 1940 and spring 1941.

This is all I have, but maybe you will find something useful here. It certainly didn't get much Luftwaffe use in June-July 1941.

L.

[oquaig]

Thanks for that. Memel was part of the Reich from 1938 to 1945, so I doubt the Soviets built any airfields there...according to the "abandoned, forgotten and little known airfields" site for Lithuania there was an airfield just north of the border some 3 km from Palange that was used by the Lithuanian Airforce to train pilots before the Soviet take over, but that is about it.

[Larry deZeng]

You are right, Oquaig. After Germany reacquired Memel on 22 March 1939, it remained in German hands until 28 January 1945. I had forgotten that it was not part of eastern Poland that had been annexed by the USSR at the end of September 1939. There were so many territorial changes in Europe from the end of World War I to the end of World War II that it is a struggle to keep them all straight.

L.