I’m listening to a documentary on YouTube (The Hidden Truth Of WWII-Battle of Berlin) and one of the Red Army soldiers interviewed said that the Soviet assault along the Oder River was being bombed by German aircraft. How is that possible? First of all, Berlin was totally surrounded by that point, and airfields would have been distant. Secondly, didn’t the Americans and Soviets have total air superiority?
They did but German aircraft were still flying until the last days. They could have been bombed at night. It could have been dive bombers or other ground attack aircraft.
Yes indeed. Airfields were not that far from Berlin by air miles. Hanna Rietsch eas able to fly into and out of Berlin near the end of the battle, offering to fly Hitler out and down to the comparative safety of Bavaria. Obviously he turned that option down. All Axis powers were able to put aircraft into the air in spite of Allied air superiority, up until each countries’ final surrender.
Tempelhof Airport is right downtown. Schonefeld Airport, the Henschel plant, is on the southern outskirts. I would suspect that the Germans used the Avus racetrack as well.
We ought to do a Berlin Airlift GB some time, now that Revell has that juicy C-54 kit out.
I can’t believe I thought that the capital of a major industrial power during the mid-20th Century wouldn’t have at least one airfield nearby…thanks everyone for replying!
IIRC, Hanna Reitsch landed and took off from a roadway in Berlin during her trip there. Remember, every airfield in Berlin would have been in range of artillery fire and pretty much out of service once the Soviets had encircled Berlin.
Got it.
Tempelhof in particular was an old design Aerodrome, like Le Bourget in Paris and Farnborough in London. You can pound on it, but there aren’t runways.
Looks like the Bomber Command visited. Obviously there was Luftwaffe operation. Bulldozed off to make room for some IL-2’s.
I spent some time in Berlin in the 70’s at a period where there wasn’t any money spent on stuff and the scars of the war were all over.
The Berlin Airlift, the 1961 Crisis, all really good subjects for the student of history.
In 1948 the British flew in their supplies from Hamburg to Lake Havel in Berlin in Sunderlands flying boats.
