Rēzekne (CLOSED)

56°31'41"N 027°20'21"E

Runway: grass flying field?

Rēzekne air field one of the oldest Latvian airfields, 195 kilometers east of Riga, Latvia.
The airfield was built by the Soviet Union somewhere before 1920. It was still being used by 45Sqn of the Bolschevik Air Force in the first half of January 1920, but on 21 January the Latvian army liberated the airfield. The first mission from the airfield did not take place until April however. On 15 April a single Sopwith Strutter and a single Sopwith Camel were transferred to the airfield for combat duty.

I could not find anything about the airfield from 1920 until ca 1960. Likely the airfield was used in this period by the Latvian Air Force (until 1939), the Soviet Air Force (until 1941), the Luftwaffe (between 1941 and 1944) and then the Soviets again, until it was built over by an industrial zone. Eugene Trochimowicz emailed me: "I remember the airfield and aircraft in this place up to 1955-56. I was too small to remember more, but from this time I dreamt about flying, and from this came my hobby and profession for 40 years; gliding and flying aircraft (agro aviation) in Poland, Sudan, Egypt(…). (The) airfield was on the north side of town. I don't have any photos from this place in Rezekne,  only my and my parents memories. We live Rezekne until 1956, and I never went back there."
According to Janis Bitenieks, Rezekne was a civil aerodrome, even an airport for some time (could be around 1970s) with scheduled domestic service from Riga.
The airfield was built over with a light industrial zone at some point. Nothing remains of the former airfeld.


Alas!