Pigi Airport (Greek: Αεροδρόμιο Πηγής) was a military airfield situated at Pigi, Crete. It was a centerpoint for the Germans during the Battle of Crete.
Pigi Airport Αεροδρόμιο Πηγής | |||||||||||
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.jpg) The airport as seen from the "Kefala" hill | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
| Location | Pigi, Rethymno | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 16 ft / 5 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 35°22′37.3″N 24°33′51.6″E / 35.377028°N 24.564333°E | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  Pigi Airport Location in Greece | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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The former military airport of Pigi was located eight kilometres (5.0 mi) east of Rethymno and 250 m (820 ft) from the coast. It was a runway built by the British in November 1940 as part of the defense of the island in the event of an attack by the Axis powers. The residents of the nearby area (Adele, Pigi) also worked on its construction, for payment. It was 960 metres (3,150 ft) long and 120 metres (390 ft) wide. In the Battle of Crete, the capture of this airfield was the main strategic objective of the German forces. Three battalions, two Australian (2/11th and 2/1st) and one Greek were charged with its defense.[1]
For this reason, they occupied defensive positions on the heights east of the airport, i.e. on hill "Kefala" or "Hill A", as the Australians called it, and on the heights south of the runway, on "Hill B". On 30 May the Australian troops surrendered and the Germans captured the airfield.[2]
However, it was not a major airport and there were no anti-aircraft defense facilities or other infrastructure. According to British secret reports, the Rethymno airport was still under construction in February 1941, while the runway was suitable only for fighter aircraft. In essence, it was a simple runway. The airport stretched from the Pigian plain to Sfakaki.
Its northern side adjoined the southern side of the old Rethymno-Heraklion National Road where it has remained unchanged until today. At the west end of the airfield, there was a small Royal Air Force radio station.[3]
In October 1944 the Germans, leaving, wreaked havoc on the airport and blew up its defense facilities. After 1945, a part of the airport began to be cultivated, and in the 1960s, a part of the runway was used by small aircraft for aerial spraying. Today, it has nothing visible except for a few cultivated parts.
References edit
Citations edit
- ^ Richards 1974, pp. 324–325.
- ^ MacDonald 1995, p. 189.
- ^ Skartsilakis 2021, pp. 215–222.
Sources edit
- MacDonald, Callum (1995). The Lost Battle: Crete 1941. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-61675-8.
- Richards, Denis (1974) [1953]. Royal Air Force 1939–1945: The Fight at Odds. Vol. I (paperback (online) ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-771592-9. Archived from the original on 2021-05-05. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
- Skartsilakis, Dimitris (2021). The Battle of Crete. The Occupation and the Resistance in Crete and the airfields of Crete in World War II. Crete: Center of Cretan Literature. ISBN 978-6-188-25293-6.