Foggia Airfield Complex
Foggia Airfield Complex
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Foggia Airfield Complex

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Foggia Airfield Complex

The Foggia Airfield Complex was a series of World War II military airfields located within a 40 km (25 mi) radius of Foggia, in the Province of Foggia, Italy. The airfields were used by the United States Army Air Forces' Fifteenth Air Force as part of the strategic bombardment campaign against Nazi Germany in 1944 and 1945, as well as the Twelfth Air Force, the British Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force during the Italian Campaign (1943–1945).

Before World War II, the Italian Royal Air Force Regia Aeronautica constructed a series of airfields in the Foggia area. They consisted of hard-surfaced runways and taxiways, concrete parking areas and permanent buildings for the support units and barracks.

After the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces in September, 1943 these airfields were seized by the German Luftwaffe. While under Axis control, the airfields were heavily bombed by the U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force in 1943 before being seized by the British Eighth Army in October 1943 during the Italian Campaign.

After the area was captured, the facilities were repaired by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (COE) to make them usable for heavy bomber operations by the new Fifteenth Air Force and the Royal Air Force. Weather in southern Italy was much better than in England where the Eighth Air Force was conducting daylight strategic bombing of Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. Using the Foggia Airfield Complex for strategic bombing missions would allow Allied heavy bombers to attack targets in France, Germany, Austria and the Balkans which were inaccessible from England. In addition to the air forces, Foggia was a major Allied command center for ground forces in southern Italy and naval forces operating in the Adriatic Sea, with numerous headquarters being assigned.

In addition to the captured airfields, several temporary and semi-permanent airfields were constructed for operations by both Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Force and RAF units. These airfields, by and large, consisted of grass or Pierced Steel Planking (PSP) runways and parking and dispersal areas, with support structures quickly constructed out of wood or tents, along with (if needed) a temporary steel control tower. Six-man tents were used for billeting, lined up in rows with the orderly room and the mess hall at one end. There was one dimly lit light bulb at the center of each tent. The tent floor was grass or more commonly dirt. Eventually, plywood was scavenged for flooring, wooden cots were used for beds, and ubiquitous 55-gallon drums were converted into stoves and other items. As many of these airfields were captured from the Italians and Germans, wrecked enemy aircraft were a common sight, with metal from their fuselages and wings, glass and other useful parts finding their way into the support areas.

By mid-1944, about two dozen airfields were in operation in the Foggia area supporting strategic bombing missions; escort missions; tactical fighter operations, reconnaissance and air defense missions. Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister for Armaments, declared:

I could see omens of the war's end almost every day in the blue southern sky when, flying provocatively low, the bombers of the American Fifteenth Air Force crossed the Alps from their Italian bases to attack German Industrial targets.

With the end of the war in May 1945, most of the airfields were abandoned and the land returned to the owners, or the Italian government.

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