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.
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