Skiotava Airfield

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gruppe.drei
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Location: www.valka.cz

Skiotava Airfield

#1

Post by gruppe.drei » 02 Jul 2014, 13:27

Hi colleagues,
I am looking for a location of the Skiotava airfield. Can anybody help me to locate it? I cannot find a present name of the town/village. I think that it is probably in Kaliningrad (Königsberg) Region...
Is it correct transcription - Skiotava?
Thanks!

GregSingh
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Skiotava Airfield

#2

Post by GregSingh » 03 Jul 2014, 14:09

Skeltava, now Šķeltova is in Latvia. That's the closest spelling I can find.

The closest Russian name I found is Shkotovo, there are tens if not hundreds of villages like that in Russia.
Polish - Szkotowo, former Skottau in East Prussia, but I doubt there was an airfield there...

What's your source for "Skiotava" ?


Art
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Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: Skiotava Airfield

#3

Post by Art » 03 Jul 2014, 18:14

Skirotava is a railroad station in modern Riga:
https://www.google.com/maps/@56.9040304,24.2166665,15z
That must be the one

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Skiotava Airfield

#4

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 03 Jul 2014, 21:03

Just south of the place Art pointed is the Rumbula airport (Rumbulas lidosta), but I don't know if it was in use in WW2.

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henryk
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Re: Skiotava Airfield

#5

Post by henryk » 04 Jul 2014, 20:25

http://www.forgottenairfields.com/latvi ... [quote]Air field Rumbula (ICAO: EVRC) was an airfield 11km/7Mi southeast of Riga, Latvia.
The airfield was built by the Soviet Air Force around 1950.
It had a military use in the 1950s and 1960s, but in the 1960s it also served as a temporary airport for larger aircraft until the new Riga International Airport was opened in 1973.
[/quote]

GregSingh
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Re: Skiotava Airfield

#6

Post by GregSingh » 05 Jul 2014, 03:54

This Latvian page Spārnotā Latvija mentions following airports near Riga during WW2:
SPILVE - The Aerodrome is located across the Daugava River from Riga, to the north west of the city. On its east side runs the Riga-Bolderaja highway, near the cement factory, and just north of Ilguciems.

SKULTE - Used by the Latvian civilian aviation and then Germans/Latvians during the second war, it was located in the Zolitude neighborhood, on the Skulte property on the north side of the Kalnciems highway. The airfield was built with the intent of turning it over to the Aizsargi, but the war interrupted these plans. Note that, although it is about 30 km from Kalnciems, it was also
unofficially referred to as the "Kalnciems" aerodrome because it was beside the Kalnciems highway.
The airfield itself posed two hazards. The first was a forest which was near enough to the runway that it was a concern during takeoffs and landings.
Secondly, the Skirotava radio antennas were a couple of kilometers away and, with no warning lights lit during wartime, these were particularly hazardous during night flights.

SKIROTAVA - When the Riga area was overly crowded with aviation units, the Germans stationed some units at "Skirotava". Presumably, this was a clear area in the neighborhood of Skirotava, where today there exists a large railroad marshalling yard.

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