Minsk Airfields

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Larry D.
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Minsk Airfields

#1

Post by Larry D. » 18 Jul 2016, 18:49

A total of 9 airfields are listed in and around Minsk in the Luftwaffe’s directory of airfields in the Soviet Union, Sep 43 edition: Minsk I, Minsk II, Minsk III, Minsk IV, Minsk-Borovaya, Minsk-Dubinskaya, Minsk-Losha, Minsk-Machulichi and Minsk-Urochiche. All nine have separate target identification numbers and different measurements for their landing grounds. Exact locations are not given in the Directory nor are there any Luftwaffe aerial target photos of them. Only two of these appear to have been used by the Luftwaffe as operational air bases, Minsk-Dubinskaya (a.k.a. Minsk/Ost) and Minsk-Machulichi (a.k.a. Minsk/Süd).

Can anyone here with access to Soviet or Russian histories and maps of the 1941-44 period take a look and see how many these sources show along with the names of each that were located within a radius of 15 km of Minsk city center? Were Minsk I, II, III and IV just a.k.a.'s for four of those with names?

I have been through many thousands of pages of German material and I cannot get to the bottom of this, so any help you can provide will be much appreciated.

L.

GregSingh
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#2

Post by GregSingh » 19 Jul 2016, 02:35

Hi Larry,

Minsk-Losha was most likely Minsk-Loshica, called Minsk-I by Russians, and Minsk-Süd by Germans.
There is a village Losha, but 34 miles SSW of Minsk.

I doubt Minsk-Machulichi was Minsk-Süd. These are two different places.
Machulichi is actually called Machulishchy / Мачулищи

Here are coordinates from Google maps for Borovaya, Süd/Loshica and Machulishchy.
Minsk-Borovaya.jpg
Minsk-Borowaja
Minsk-Süd.jpg
Minsk-Süd near Loshica
Machulishchy.jpg
Minsk-Machulishchy


Larry D.
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#3

Post by Larry D. » 19 Jul 2016, 15:50

Greg - Thanks for your thoughts and comments. I wish it were as simple as that. That's why I was hoping against hope for some input from Russian primary sources or postwar Russian published material based on primary documentation that identifies the wartime airfields in and around Minsk. I have researched everything else. Regarding M-Matschulitschi, a dozen or more German primary sources state that this is Minsk/Süd and located 13 km S of the city center at those coordinates.

Minsk-Matschulitschi (RUSS) (a.k.a. Minsk- Machulichi, Minsk/Süd, Minsk/South) (ZNr. 1358) (53 46 N – 27 34 E)
General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) in Belorussia in W Russia (today Belarus) 13.25 km S of Minsk. Rated for bombers.
History: built in 1933, a pre-war civil flying club was located there until the Germans arrived on 30 Jun 41. No record found of any Luftwaffe bomber units being based here.
Dimensions: 1300 x 1300 meters (1420 x 1420 yards).
Surface and Runways: originally a grass surface without a runway. The Germans may have put down a paved or prepared runway during the 3 years they occupied it.
Fuel and Ammunition: both stocked and available. A large fuel storage and issuing dump and munitions storage and issuing dump were located here.
Infrastructure: had 2 large concrete flight hangars and workshops at one end of the landing area with the base flight control building located between them. The barracks and other accommodations were approx. 200-300 meters S of the hangar area and adjacent to a pre-war sports stadium. An unpaved road connected the airfield with Minsk abd the nearest rail connection was in Minsk.
Dispersal: there were 2 dispersal areas along the N and E boundaries of the landing area in 1941.
Defenses: no details found.
Remarks:
30 Jun 41: airfield captured by 20. Panzer-Div. along with 30 mostly destroyed Russian aircraft; it was quickly cleared of wrecks and unexploded ordnance and put into service on 4 July.

L.
Last edited by Larry D. on 20 Jul 2016, 00:52, edited 1 time in total.

GregSingh
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#4

Post by GregSingh » 20 Jul 2016, 00:15

I fully agree subject needs more research.

According to Soviet sources, first airport in Minsk was built in 1933 near village Лошица / Loshica.
It was used as a command center of Soviet air force of Western Front in June 1941.

Minsk-Matschulitschi airport was built in 1939, not 1933: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0 ... 1%89%D0%B8
It hosted some Soviet air force training unit in June 1941, can dig it out which one if important.

I have a sketch from 1943 where you can see Flugpl. Minsk-Süd labeled in the location of Minsk-Loshica, not Minsk-Matschulitschi.
Both those airports were located south of Minsk.

It is still possible Germans used Minsk-Süd for both, or changed from one to the other at some point.

Also Minsk-Matschulitschi had direct rail connection to Minsk, and sport field was near Loshica, not Matschulitschi.
Looks like your description has mixed elements of both those airfields.

GregSingh
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#5

Post by GregSingh » 20 Jul 2016, 01:19

Here is the sketch.
Minsk-Süd.jpg
Flugplatz Minsk-Süd

shamirnewell
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#6

Post by shamirnewell » 20 Jul 2016, 02:03

I will post this link

An air recon pic from July 44 of Minsk 1

http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/targetr ... ssia).html




I note that they labeled it Flugplatz Minsk III.

This should be after the Russians liberated the field.
Last edited by shamirnewell on 20 Jul 2016, 02:42, edited 2 times in total.

shamirnewell
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#7

Post by shamirnewell » 20 Jul 2016, 02:10

Minsk Urochiche is probably the old military airfield directly East of the Minsk Beltway and a kilometer or so south of Uruchche.

GregSingh
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#8

Post by GregSingh » 20 Jul 2016, 03:12

Here is a list of airfields near Minsk (30 km radius) from Soviet report of March 1941 with original numbers:

109 - Дубицкая Слобода (23 км южнее Минска) - possibly misspelled Dubinskaya
110 - Озеро (30 км южнее Минска)
111 - Бережье (20 км юго-западнеe Минска)
112 - Слепянка (5 км восточнее Минска) - possibly Minsk-Urochiche
114 - Копище (7 км северо-восточнее Минска) - most likely Minsk-Borovaya
154 – Богатыревка (8 км западнее Минска)
1118 - Минск/Лошица (1,5 км южнее Минска) - most likely misspelled Minsk-Losha
1501 – Синело (18 км юго-восточнее Минска)
Мачулище - Machulichi / Machulishchy / Matschulitschi is mentioned without a number.

Dubinskaya seemed to be S, not E of Minsk?

These documents might also help:
Донесение Начальника штаба ВВС Западного Особого Военного Округа полковника С.А. Худякова «Список аэродромной сети ВВС ЗапОВО» от 14.12.1940г.

(ф. 208, оп. 2589, д. 94) Приложение № 54 - полный список аэродромов округа по состоянию на 22 июня 1941 г.

And here is fragment of post-WWII US map, based on Soviet maps.
US map.jpg

Larry D.
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#9

Post by Larry D. » 20 Jul 2016, 15:23

Wow - When it rains it pours!

Thank you Greg and others for this generous amount of fresh input. It will take me a day or two to sort through this new material and correlate it with the information I already have, but on the surface it agrees with what I have except for the huge confusion over the designations or names of two of these, i.e., Minsk/Süd and Minsk-Matschulitschi. This emanates from there being too many cooks in the kitchen stirring the pot, meaning fragments of German, British, American and Russian documents that mostly use different names for these airfields.

The "Name Unknown" field just west of Minsk was:

Jarkowo (RUSS) (a.k.a. Yarkovo) (ZNr. 10-0279) (c. 53 54 N – 27 23 E)
General: practice field (Übungsflugplatz) 11 km W of Minsk city center. History: no record found of any Luftwaffe activity here. Surface and Dimensions: natural surface of unstated dimensions. Infrastructure: no information found but probably none. Dispersal: there were no organized dispersal facilities.
Remarks: none.
[Sources: chronologies; AFHRA, BA-MA; NARA incl. T-321 roll 239/OKL 903; PRO/NA; web site ww2.dk]

Additionally, Minsk-Loscha appears to have been initially called Minsk III by the Germans and may well be Minsk/Süd:

Minsk III (RUSS) (ZNr. 10-1538) (??)
[Probably the same as Minsk-Loscha?]
General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) measuring 950 x 1100 meters.
Remarks:
1 Jul 41: ground organization ordered to have Minsk III ready to received Stab/JG 53 by dawn on 2 July, but this order was canceled and Stab/53 went elsewhere.
22 Jul 44: Lw. aerial target photo shows it on the SW side of Minsk and just S of the main RR line entering Minsk from Baranovichi with a grass surface, some infrastructure at the N end and 14 open aircraft shelters. The rail complex just N of the airfield is the main marshalling yard complete with engine roundhouse. Sadly, all of the other aerial photos for MINSK are for the Minsk in Poland and taken in Dec 44.

Minsk-Loscha (RUSS) (a.k.a. Minsk-Losha, Minsk-Loshitsa, Minsk/Central) (ZNr. 10-0281) (53 51 53 N – 27 32 25 E)
[Probably the same as Minsk III.]
General: civil airport 4.25 km SSW of Minsk city center. History: built pre-war. No record found of any Luftwaffe air units being based here. Today, the main airport for Minsk. Surface and Dimensions: measured approx. 1000 x 800 meters (1095 x 875 yards). Fuel and Ammunition: Infrastructure: Dispersal: Defenses:
Remarks:
[Sources: chronologies; AFHRA, BA-MA; NARA incl. T-321 roll 239/OKL 903; PRO/NA; web site ww2.dk]


Thanks again and if anything else turns up that can illuminate this subject, please add it to the thread.

L.

shamirnewell
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#10

Post by shamirnewell » 20 Jul 2016, 17:06

There is a second what appears to be much earlier aerial recon picture here of Minsk 1, Minsk-Losha, Minsk-Loshitsa, Minsk/Central, Minsk 3.

http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/targetr ... ia%29.html

shamirnewell
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#11

Post by shamirnewell » 20 Jul 2016, 22:02

This image shows Minsk-Urochiche AKA Minsk Slepyanka aircraft are clearly visible on an grass airfield in top right of frame.

http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/aerialm ... k%201.html

Edit: Minsk-Borovaya is visible in mid top of frame. A grass area no aircraft visible that I see.

Larry D.
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#12

Post by Larry D. » 21 Jul 2016, 01:28

Thanks Shamirnewell - I went through all of the aerial target photos on the wwii-photos-maps.com website a month or two ago and alluded to that in my first post, above. If you noticed how the Minsk target photos are numbered on that site - Minsk 009 - Minsk 050 - yet there are only 14 Minsk photos that are shown there, then there may be at least another 36 Minsk aerial target photos that exist but are not shown on that website. The problem for me is that I cannot get to the Cartographic and Maps Division of the U.S. National Archives in College Park/Maryland to check the collection to see if the 36 or so photos still exist, and if so whether they contain images of the Minsk airfields. The Luftwaffe was mainly interested in the Minsk marshaling yards, so there may not be any more images of the airfields. The entire collection of Luftwaffe aerial target photos is cover-named the "Dick Tracy" Collection and it contains many thousands of images.

L.

Larry D.
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#13

Post by Larry D. » 21 Jul 2016, 18:25

Hi Greg -

One more question on this. Could you please identify where you got that "fragment of post-WWII US map, based on Soviet maps" you provided in this thread? I just spent a couple of hours on the internet trying to track it down and the closest I got was the AMS Eastern Europe series N501, 1:250,000 scale, sheet NN 35-8 Minsk, compiled in 1954 from German Heereskarten and Soviet maps and first printed in May 1958, but this has no airfield identifications whereas yours does. Hopefully, you found it on the internet somewhere so I will be able to use it for further research on other airfields.

Thanks, Greg,

Karry

GregSingh
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#14

Post by GregSingh » 21 Jul 2016, 23:56

Larry,

I have only some scans made by a friend. These are without legend, so I can't exactly date them. But I noticed some airports there were built after WWII, unless original maps were later edited. I don't know.
Also it seems it mostly shows airfields with a concrete runway, so not many "grass fields".
I found it not too helpful for WWII research, but good for general orientation and it's in English!

Anyway, let me know which areas are of interest. I'll see if I have those.
And if it is on the internet, sooner or later someone will find it...

Greg

Larry D.
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Re: Minsk Airfields

#15

Post by Larry D. » 22 Jul 2016, 01:34

Thanks for your kind reply, Greg. It has dawned on me since I wrote my question that I think I know where to find those kind of marked-up or overlay military maps, and that's the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Unfortunately, they have very poor search software for their data base so finding things is a very dodgy process that usually ends up unsuccessful. But they would be the ones for old maps and airfield gazetteers for the Soviet Union in that rather dark period of the late 1940's.

Thanks again,

L.

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