Borovo

45°23'08"N 018°57'50"E

runway: 14/32 - 899x97m/2950x318ft - grass

Borovo airfield (Croatian: Borovo aerodrom, also known as Bata-Borovo aerodrome, Vukovar-Borovo or Borovo-Naselje, ICAO: LDOB) is a small airfield near Vukovar, 230 kilometers east of Zagreb.
The airfield was built in the 1930s by the Bata shoe company as part of their Bata-Borovo workers village in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.


Bata Aerodrome, Borovo Yugoslavia (today Croatia). The photo is hand dated on the back as 20 May 1934, which might be the day of opening. YU-PAX is a De Havilland Puss Moth, no 2184 , later G-AEOA. OK-ATG is another De Havilland 80A Puss Moth, no. 2102, built in 1931 (Flickr).
 
After the war, the Bata plant was nationalised by the socialist Yugoslav government. As a result, the name 'Bata' was dropped from the village and the airfield. In 1953 the airfield was home to the Yugoslav national gliding championship.


Kosava glider YU-5022, winner of the 1953 Yugoslav championship (Ann Welch-Douglas in Flight International).


Two UTVA-66 aircraft and an unidentified glider at the airfield, presumably 1970s (source).

During the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s, Vukovar and its surrounding townships were severely shelled. The airfield, located on the right bank of the Danube River was well within firing range of Serbia on the left bank. It slowly recovered after the war in the Balkans was over from 1996.
Bullet holes are still visible in the hangar, however. Today it is used mostly by (ultra-)light aircraft of the Borovo Aeroklub.



The airfield photographed in 2006. Across the yellow line lies Serbia (Google Earth)