Lesina Airfield

Military mission completion and post-war abandonment. Lesina Airfield was a temporary wartime installation built specifically for the Allied campaign in Europe during World War II. Once the war ended and the American military units were withdrawn, the strategic need for the airfield ceased. As a temporary facility with pierced steel planking runways, it was not suitable for conversion to a permanent civilian airport and was subsequently dismantled and returned to local authorities.

The site of the former Lesina Airfield has been completely returned to agricultural use. The land is now comprised of cultivated fields and farmland. There are no remaining buildings, hangars, or permanent structures from its time as an airfield. However, the faint, ghostly outlines of the main runway and some of the perimeter taxiways are still clearly visible in aerial and satellite imagery, a common feature of reclaimed WWII airfields in the region.

Lesina Airfield was a significant heavy bomber airfield within the Foggia Airfield Complex, a network of bases in southern Italy crucial to the Allied war effort. Constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in late 1943, it became operational in December of that year. Its primary and most notable role was as the home base for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) 301st Bombardment Group (Heavy), which was part of the Fifteenth Air Force. Flying B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, the 301st BG conducted long-range strategic bombing missions from Lesina against critical industrial, military, and transportation targets in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans. The airfield was a key asset in the strategic bombing campaign that crippled the Axis war machine. Operations ceased in October 1945 when the 301st BG was reassigned, and the airfield was closed shortly thereafter.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Lesina Airfield. The land is privately owned and integral to the local agricultural economy. Its original infrastructure was temporary and has been gone for over 75 years, making any potential reactivation prohibitively expensive and without any modern strategic or commercial justification.