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Poltava Air Base
Poltava Air Base (Ukrainian: Авіабаза «Полтава», Russian: Авиабаза «Полтава») is a military airfield located approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest of Poltava, Ukraine. It is one of two airfields near Poltava, the other being Poltava Airport.
In 1936 the Poltava airfield became a base for Soviet military aviation.[citation needed]
German forces occupied the Poltava area from September 1941 until September 1943 as part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The Luftwaffe maintained a regional headquarters at the airfield, and Adolf Hitler visited on one occasion (1 June 1942). When they evacuated the area, the Germans placed 12 500-lb bombs connected to a distant, concealed HF-antenna under the main building. (Nearby structures had been largely destroyed.) The bomb was discovered when Soviet-American forces re-commissioned the base in spring 1944.[page needed]
In February 1944 the Soviets provided the field to the United States Army Air Forces as a heavy-bomber staging-field for use by the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in shuttle-bombing missions against German-held territory (Operation Frantic, June to September 1944). After an intense construction season with increasing American presence, the field was declared ready for U.S. bomber use at the end of May 1944. A high-level USAAF team led by General Frederick Anderson (accompanied by Colonel Elliott Roosevelt and others) inspected the base that month. The runways comprised Marsden steel matting imported from the United States, and the fuel depot was filled with high-octane aviation gasoline from the U.S. A Soviet fighter regiment and several support aircraft were stationed at the field.[page needed]
Poltava was designated as USAAF Station 559 and became headquarters, Eastern Command, headed by General Alfred Kessler. Two smaller nearby U.S. fields, also along the Kiev railway, were Mirgorod and Pyriatyn (Stations 561 and 560).[page needed]
Operation Frantic began with 325th Reconnaissance Wing flights from England and Italy in late May 1944, and a photo lab and reconnaissance detachment with a few F-5 Lightnings were based at Poltava. Bombing runs (FRANTIC-1) began from Italy (15th Air Force) on 2 June 1944, returning four days later. The concept of operations was for American aircraft to use England (8th Air Force), Italy, and the Ukrainian bases as vertices of a triangular bombing campaign against Axis targets in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.[citation needed]
Difficulties for the US forces began almost immediately, with a good example being how Joseph Stalin promised US military leaders that the Soviets would handle all air base defenses. Stalin's idea of airbase defense consisted of truck-mounted .50 caliber machine-guns. Stalin's airbase defense strategy proved entirely ineffective on the night of 21 June when a Luftwaffe attack on the base proved an entire success, as not a single Luftwaffe plane was shot down by the .50 cal truck-mounted machine-guns supplied by Stalin for defense.[citation needed]
After seven distinct FRANTIC shuttle operations, bombing missions of Operation Frantic ended in September 1944. At that time, increasing inter-Allied hostility and a decreasing need for the Ukrainian bases caused the USAAF to consolidate at Poltava and to reduce the base there to a caretaker status. U.S. personnel there declined from a peak of about 1,300 to around 300. American command and maintenance personnel of Operation Frantic remained at Poltava until 22 June 1945 according to operation commander Brigadier General William L. Ritchie. That is the date that he and the last remaining American military personnel left Poltava to attend a victory-parade celebration in Moscow as propaganda guests of Stalin the next day.[page needed] Most Americans exited via Tehran, the same way they had arrived.[page needed]
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Poltava Air Base
Poltava Air Base (Ukrainian: Авіабаза «Полтава», Russian: Авиабаза «Полтава») is a military airfield located approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest of Poltava, Ukraine. It is one of two airfields near Poltava, the other being Poltava Airport.
In 1936 the Poltava airfield became a base for Soviet military aviation.[citation needed]
German forces occupied the Poltava area from September 1941 until September 1943 as part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The Luftwaffe maintained a regional headquarters at the airfield, and Adolf Hitler visited on one occasion (1 June 1942). When they evacuated the area, the Germans placed 12 500-lb bombs connected to a distant, concealed HF-antenna under the main building. (Nearby structures had been largely destroyed.) The bomb was discovered when Soviet-American forces re-commissioned the base in spring 1944.[page needed]
In February 1944 the Soviets provided the field to the United States Army Air Forces as a heavy-bomber staging-field for use by the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in shuttle-bombing missions against German-held territory (Operation Frantic, June to September 1944). After an intense construction season with increasing American presence, the field was declared ready for U.S. bomber use at the end of May 1944. A high-level USAAF team led by General Frederick Anderson (accompanied by Colonel Elliott Roosevelt and others) inspected the base that month. The runways comprised Marsden steel matting imported from the United States, and the fuel depot was filled with high-octane aviation gasoline from the U.S. A Soviet fighter regiment and several support aircraft were stationed at the field.[page needed]
Poltava was designated as USAAF Station 559 and became headquarters, Eastern Command, headed by General Alfred Kessler. Two smaller nearby U.S. fields, also along the Kiev railway, were Mirgorod and Pyriatyn (Stations 561 and 560).[page needed]
Operation Frantic began with 325th Reconnaissance Wing flights from England and Italy in late May 1944, and a photo lab and reconnaissance detachment with a few F-5 Lightnings were based at Poltava. Bombing runs (FRANTIC-1) began from Italy (15th Air Force) on 2 June 1944, returning four days later. The concept of operations was for American aircraft to use England (8th Air Force), Italy, and the Ukrainian bases as vertices of a triangular bombing campaign against Axis targets in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.[citation needed]
Difficulties for the US forces began almost immediately, with a good example being how Joseph Stalin promised US military leaders that the Soviets would handle all air base defenses. Stalin's idea of airbase defense consisted of truck-mounted .50 caliber machine-guns. Stalin's airbase defense strategy proved entirely ineffective on the night of 21 June when a Luftwaffe attack on the base proved an entire success, as not a single Luftwaffe plane was shot down by the .50 cal truck-mounted machine-guns supplied by Stalin for defense.[citation needed]
After seven distinct FRANTIC shuttle operations, bombing missions of Operation Frantic ended in September 1944. At that time, increasing inter-Allied hostility and a decreasing need for the Ukrainian bases caused the USAAF to consolidate at Poltava and to reduce the base there to a caretaker status. U.S. personnel there declined from a peak of about 1,300 to around 300. American command and maintenance personnel of Operation Frantic remained at Poltava until 22 June 1945 according to operation commander Brigadier General William L. Ritchie. That is the date that he and the last remaining American military personnel left Poltava to attend a victory-parade celebration in Moscow as propaganda guests of Stalin the next day.[page needed] Most Americans exited via Tehran, the same way they had arrived.[page needed]
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