SCHORFHEIDE AIRFIELD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A002800500001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 20, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
CLASSIFICATION Sl 'TTn1 /CO1 T .CL - U.S. OTICI. LS OL Ll
S E C U R I T Y IT _
COQ N R`(e... East Germany REPORT
TOPIC.
EVALUATION
DATE OF CONTEN
DATE OBTAINED.
REFERENCES_
~t.CE OBTAINED)
M 'E PREPARED 20 October 1953
PAGES _ ENCLOSURES (No. & TYPE)__
REMARKS
1, After July 1952, a German construction superintendant was in charge of the three
construction staffs, i.e. fo? concrete constructions, earth works and above
ground construction at Schorfheide airfield, Construction orderu and money were
received from the Soviet Air Fora Construction Department in Werder9 Major
Oleynik (fnu) was in'charge of the Schorfheide airfield project. Construction
work itself was supervised by a Soviet construction staff from Leipzig, The
following officers belonged to this staff. Lieutenant Colonel Khomotov (fnu),
chief,, Lieutenant Colonel Yelesov (fnu), chief engineer,, Lieutenant Colonel
Aleteyev (fnu),, administration, Major Kovba.ssaI(fnu), machines and tools and
Major Sharov (fnu) above ground constructions. It was believed that the runway
would be completed before I October 1953 which had been fixed as target date.
2. The Soviet construction staff had. moved. up the completion date of Schorfheide
airfield which originally was set for October 1955,
'3. By early September 1953, the concreting of the runway was completed and only
the joints between the individual slabs had still. to be filled and cracked
slabs to be repaired.
4, On the night of 7 to 8 September 1953, the temporary HO-building and its stocks
were destroyed br fire. It was assured that the fire was caused by sabotage.
5. The concreting of the runway was completed on schedule in early September 1953
After that date the field was cleared and the first railroad rails and construc-
tion tools were moved from the construction site. A ditch leading along the
northern edge of the runway was dug as deep as the concrete layer. The bottom
of the ditch was compacted and then the ditch was filled with coarse edged gra-
vel. Another ditch of this type was allegedly to be dug along the southern
edge of the runway. On both sides of the runway, 30 meter strips were be "Mg
leveled and prepared f'or sodding.
6, After early September, all efforts were concentrated on the construction of the
taxiways. All concreting machines were employed for this purpose. Mushroom-sha-
ped handstands were staked out and leveled on both sides of the taxiways, which
CEA'C;3l IC "T1;Jilt :aEC' i,2/'COP TROL U.S. CTIFFICIAL,', C1 LY
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
SEC 'lifA/CONTR0L - U.S. L.'! F'ICI LS ONLY
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branched of at right angles from the cast. and west end of the rimway0 Two
roads?, parallel to the taxiway and about 14 msters apart from it were ex
tended into the field. The concrete surfaces 15 centimeters thick which
had been applied manually was completed on 12 September 19530
7, eSazlPl u es of concrete were tester
in a temporary building located in the
middle between runway and t a ci?way north of the cement containers. Only.
Soviet and German engineers and ec nic? ars had access to this a< ea, In
front of the temporary building German wdrkmen prepared concrete samples
w .3 cb were 20 x 20 centimeters, T' e samples were treated like the concrete
slabs of the runway for a couple of days and were tested for pressure resin-
ta.nce. The water and cement contents of the concrete samples ,say; frequently
' changed? In the cement containers, the various shipments of cement were sto-
red sepa_L atsdl y and pie .es indicated the date of arrival and origin of ship-
ment. All cement had come from Karlsdori 0
8. On the night of 7 to 8 Sepe.em er, the emporasu. y building of the HO building
burned down, The area was Mien st rrounded by an Imps 3i~is d fence and
guarded
by VP0 SS1) personnel: participated in the investigations into the cause of the
fire. The day before the fire, large a ioun?trs of money were received by the HO
and it was rumored that the building was burned down to disguise a robbery.
9, A construction situ whi ould not be seen from the Gross loch. , Zehdenick road
was located between Gr -unewa id and Ku tsch = ag:. A forest ace d. branching off from
the aforementioned road lead through Jagen 103 (forest district) to the cons-
truction site., The workers were daily waken there by bus, Two pref. erica ed
buildings were already completed at the construction site and. more such bu 1.'
dings and a road were under construction, fuel or .rim--m-
nition depot ias concerned,
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100 In early ,September 19539 the concreting of the runway was completed and the
joint? between the concrete slabs were being filled with bitumen. The concre-
ting of the taxiway was delayed by ''the breakdonr of one of the concreting 50X1-HUM
mac'hin'es?
7. , Work on the road leading to the fuel depot was discontinued L). early Sep tuber,
Six -its h, d already been dug out at the construct ,on. site0
12. About 150 mmaeters south of `the Grvre?..al.d~Co 1 .n ,F1eB field-pat 'n. a road w s built
through the woods from the Vietman.:n dorf - Gross Doell r highs a_ , This road
extended is an easterly direction to a loading rami,. , The cc~mulet .d part o:
the road waa four meters wide and had a concrete corer of 15 centimeters, The
distance between the southern edge, of ibhis road and the croesing point of the
tracks with the Vie e111n,'
`tr~rinscorl' Gross D1oerOroad was 30 xre't,.v!:rss'o.
13 , it was previously reported that boards we ve erected beside the s spur track.
Board 11.3 was 20 meters east of the Vietm.nnsdor f - Gross Doe ll a road, board
11 was located at the branch of the spur track leading to the cement hsed In.
the north,, which in 't-;urn was located 375 me e s west of the :s 'amia nedor
Gross Doolin road.
14. In early September 1953 the temporary 110 ng burned don. The fire broke
mm.?t around midnight and could not be e'xtIri uia" ed? All stocks were e estrq; ed
by the fire, Carpenters rescued the chief of the HO score: and -tho female emp? oyme
from the f ? i v estigations were 'pen t:l. ted because iaboto:g@ $ s su.speca
ted,
SEGRE /WkI ROL ? U.S. OFT, ICIALS ONLY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
SECRET/CONTROL.. UaS, OFF ICIALS OJ LY
comp ate as much concreting work as possible befare the beginning of cold
weather. Work wa's to be started on the construction of a northern to 3waya
which was to be bui! t in the same way as the southern taxi .,ay . During the
winter concrete components for revetments are to be produced.
60 On 11 ,Septembers Construction Super_i n tenant Koet s (fn.?) n personnel chief
Sitzig (fnu) and 25 construction workers, among them the so-called best wor.50X1-HUM
kere, went to a special meeting' in tie Prenzlau district. Ora't;,ew ola1 attended
this mee -ling and spoke during the demonstration? The Plinister President sub_
sequentlyy received some of the wori;er s
A a was SUTre:?,ara-le yr 'seveca.l. detectives. 50X1-HUM
l7 By .19 Septembers about half of the joints between the concrete slabs of the
-ray had. "been f=-lled with bitumen, Starting in the east the excavation along
the northern edge of the runway had been filled with roars fir;=rye while the
excavations along the southern border of the field were being levelled and
rolledo During this work it was determined that some of the concrete slabs of
?rhe rura. ayT w,,-ere only 36 to 37 centimeters thick. The Soviet construction s`iaff
demanded that these slabs be removed and that new slabs be cnct- 50X1-HUM
l& The concreting of the I.a ciwaG s was being continued` Each taxi say consisted of
three cone e to la nes each 7.'
meters wide. By 19 September the outer concrete
strips were concreted or the taxiways extending from the ends of the runway
and on the north.-south, taxiway; in Jagen 190. The north-south taxiway in Jagen
i9/4. was coanletoed except for the second half of the middle sectiono On the
east,-west taxiway the concrete strip along the southorn edge was concreted
e.sceot for the space needed i-or the spy. t.vac' 0 Along 1"h'e northern edge the con-Crete strip was completed from the east up to the north -;south taxiway , i s Jagen
1.90 and from the west up to the spur track. Two roads, 15 meters wide,, were
under constructILC from the ' ends of the 'un wav. parallel to the taxi'viays, in
the direction of the field. The distance b tween theses roads and the taxiways
was about 119 meters The con mewing of the hard stands had not been started
c3. s Yep
o
19- i or k' on the fuel damp located in the northern portion of Jagen 162 were continued,
and excavations for a Second fuel dump located just north of the spur track in
the northern. part of Jagen 158 were- started Both fuel dumps were to be cor-nect ed
by a road running parallel to and 25 meters distant from the railroad tracko
20 A guard }.noese was eompleted near the technical depot located in Reiersdorfer
F orst~, about twp kilometer s west-southwest of GL ewaldo The administration
building under construction was half completed9 ` he construction site was lo-
cated in the woods about 700 meters north of the Oross-Doe?lin 3e1hderick road
and Just west of the way leading to S orkow?? In the woods each of the roads
about 800 m,I_eter north of the buildings four clearings were eu dablished and
3evellsd the distance between the individual clearings being about 200 meters.
Members of the construction sbaff stated that permanent storage buildings i?ro?
Mbly for bombs were to be ereceted there
SECRET/CONTROL - U0So OFFICIALS ONLY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8
SG T/CONTROL - U.S. OFFICIALS ONLY
21. Between 8 February and 16 September 1953, incoming material shipments;,
io.ciuded 42,76L76 tons of Portland cemen t$ 54, 566.99 tons of 7/15 gra-
vel, 722
,,823.24 24 tons. of 15/30 gravel and 215, 599016 tons of smalll, grain
gravel.
2 p
Gcr i~t. Except for g4aa joa Kovbassa, all officers were previously
epor edc as having these assignmazzits.
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.The technical depot is located. in 3agen ]O3 west southwest off` OrKzneP ald and
not Jagell 103 northeast of Kuryschlago 50X1-HUM
SECRET/CONTROL U.S. OFFICIALS ONLY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/11: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002800500001-8