Sterparone Airfield

Coordinates: 41°36′06.28″N 015°18′24″E / 41.6017444°N 15.30667°E

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Sterparone Airfield
Part of Fifteenth Air Force
Province of Foggia, Italy
Sterparone Airfield, Italy, 1945
Sterparone Airfield Location of Sterparone Airfield, Italy
Coordinates	41°36′06.28″N 015°18′24″E / 41.6017444°N 15.30667°E / 41.6017444; 15.30667
Type	Military airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1943-1945
Battles/wars	World War II

Sterparone Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield in Italy. It was located 11.1 kilometers south-southeast of San Severo, in the Province of Foggia. The airfield was abandoned and dismantled after the end of the war in 1945.

History

Sterparone airfield was a temporary wartime facility built by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Construction was initiated in September 1943, after Allied forces seized control of the Tavoliere plain around Foggia, Apulia, Italy.^[1] The only known use of the airfield was by the Fifteenth Air Force 483d Bombardment Group, which arrived from Tortorella Airfield, Italy on 22 April 1944.^[2]

The 483d Bomb Group consisted of four B-17 Flying Fortress squadrons:^[3]

The airfield had a single, 6,000' x 100' asphalt runway, oriented 10/28 with two perimeter tracks, each containing about 50 aircraft parking hardstands. There may have been some temporary hangars and buildings; however, it appears that personnel were quartered primarily in tents, and most aircraft maintenance took place in the open on hardstands. It also had a steel control tower.^[1]

The 483d departed after the end of the war, moving to Pisa Airport for service with Air Transport Command on 15 May 1945.^[2] Sometime after that departure, the engineers moved in and dismantled the facility.

Today Sterparone Airfield has been returned to agriculture; however, extensive scarring of the landscape remains, showing various dispersal pads and taxiways and other features.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

^ ^a ^b Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Italy, Apulia Foggia Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
^ Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.

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