SBEGOVSKI AIRFIELD AND THE THIRD SPECIAL LONG-RANGE BOMBER REGIMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R007900390005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 19, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

. Approved For Release 2006/01/12. CIA-RDP82-00457R0079003900
CLASSIFICATION 1?Q1r'fr/ C0i,T .OL--U O F1Clnb3 UNLl
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RE
INFORMATION REPORT CD
COUNTRY USSR (Chita Oblast) DA
PORT NO.
NO.
TE 1ISTR.
SUBJECT Sbegovski Airfield and the Third Special NO
. OF PAGES
4
Lang-Range Bomber Regiment
I'LJ NO
. OP ENCLS.
1
(sketch and
ACQUIRED
leend)
DATE OF
INFO.
SU
RE
PPLEMENT TO
PORT NO.
General Information
311x
Sbegevski airfield, located in Chita Oblast (Transbaikal area), and the Third Sp
amr Regt are assigned g n to the Soviet Par East Command. L The Y ng personnel
are quartered in the vicinity of the airfield, S govs airfield was opened in
January 19149. The field's hangars are built into the slopes of the hills. The
construction of the installation was executed by the Ninth Sp Engr Bn of the NVL
troops with the help of 3,000 Soviet slave laborers. F s-were not employed on
the construction of the field.
2. Location
The airfield is loce.ted in a valley l2 km south of the main Trans.-Siberian rail-
road line, 8 km west of Sbegovski railroad station f53-20N, 118-324), On the
west and east, the airfield is hemmed in by steep hills from 2M 'to 250 meters
high. The hills are covered with coniferous brushwood and coniferous and deci-
duous trees. About 2 km south of the field the terrain, which is also covered
with dense woods and"brushI takes on a moutainous character, A view of the air-
field from north to south is blocked by .a forest. Although airfield buildings
and the railroad line are located in the northern part of tie `area, the airfield
buildings are built into the woods in such a manner as to be scarcely visible
from the railroad line. Only the weather station with a control tower and a wind
cone can be discerned with difficulty.. The braced radio tower appears to have
been constructed of steel tubes. According to flying personnel, the airfield
buildings and runway can be detected without difficulty from a plane flying at
an altitude of 1,C) to 2,000 meters.
Airfield Installations
The field's installations are located in the woods along the railroad line
and at the foot of'the hills bordering on the east and west sides of the
4.eid. The railroad line has a track-siding on which a permanently stationed
pullman car serves as a railroad office. About one hundred meters from this
STATE NAVY X MSRs DISTRIBUTION
ARMY AIR fP E81
Vel-
7L 1978
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siding, there
was a f'.eld warehouse, connected to the railroad line by a double-track
spur. A six-.meter-wide crush ,%d stone road also led to the storage shed;
4c Insta lations available at the field include a headquarters building,
weather station, radio station, two warehouses, power house, storage
facilities for lubricants, pump plant, theater, officers, club and mess
rcrn,, four billets for flying personnel, three billets for the RAO (air
f:%rce battalion), five guard houses, garage, and repair hangar.
a. The headquarters building, a three-story stone structure with a
sheet metal roof, accommodated, among other things, the telephone
switchboard, the photographic laboratory, topographical maps, aerial
photographs, etc.
The weather station was a four-story stone building with a recently
constructed tower which had a flat roof. A revolving signal projector
on a steel trellis mast was mounted on the roof of the weather station.
The signal projector threw its light to the south and north in the
direction of the airfield.
c. The radio station, a two-story structure provided with a generator,
was adjacent to the headquarters building. It was equipped with a
mobile Redut"type direction finder and a mobile field radio station.
The steel antenna tower was erected near the g*aragee
d. The stone warehouses stored the unit supplies. Rations and clothing
were deposited in the northern warehouse. Replacement engines and
spare-parts were stored in the second warehouse near the repair hangar.
e. The power station, a two-story stone building, was equipped with two
220-volt Diesel generators
f. Storage facilities for lubricants sere located in a gallery that was
built ten meters deep into the hillside in the western part of the
airfield area,, to the left of the place where fuel containers were
embedded in concrete. The fuel drums were stored in another gallery
nearby.
gm The pumping plant was a brick structure equipped with two metal con-
tainers and a pump operated by an electric motor. The water was supplied
by a wen.
h. The theater was a two-story stone building with a sheet metal roof.
i. The officers' club was also a two-story wooden building.
J. Billets for flying personnel consisted of three-story wooden buildings
with sheet metal roofs. Ground personnel occupied three-story barracks-
type billets. The guard houses were single story wooden buildings.
k. The garage, built into a mountain recess, had a capacity of thirty
motor vehicles and a repair shop for running repairs.
1. The repair hangar was also located in a mountain recess near the ware-
house in the southern part of the field. The repair hangar was esuipped
with work benches, for running repairs on aircraft engines and fuselages,
and with a test stand for the testing of engines.
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The airfield has the shape of a long extended strip following the course
of the valley. It covers an area of 3,,500'square meters. The north-south
runway, 800 meters long and 20 meters wide, is camouflaged in such a way
as to be of the sane color as the surrounding terrain. The landing field
has a turf cover which is cut short in summer. The landing points oft
field are marked by code panels; at night, red and white signal lights are
in operation. Ten hangars,, twice as wide as deeps are built into the slopes
of the hills surrounding the airfield. The floors of the hangars are of
natural stone. The outer walls of the hangars are 11 meters thick and are
provided with sliding armored doors. The hangars which are built 75 meters
apart, house thirty-two bombers, but storage facilities are available fior an
additional thirty-two planes. A level hardstand in the southern end of the
airfield Permitted the parking of up to fifteen planes,.
Commanding, officer of the bomber regiment was Major General Safronov (fnu);
Chief of Staff.. Colonel Morozov (fnu); Commanding Officer of the BAO,
Major Sharmandshiyev (fnu) . The regiments including the HAO, had one hundred
thirtyasfive officers and five hundred fifty to six hundred d4 and NCO's.
Officers. ages ranged from twenty to forty-six years. Thirty-five percent
were veterans of World War II. Most of the junior officers were graduates
from the Moscow, I`,1yazma, and Leningrad Air Force schools. The Flyazma Air
Force School is located near the K3,yazma railroad station about 20 km west
of Moscow',* nighty percent of the personnel were Buryat-r ongoli.ans and Ki.r-
gizes ; the remainder belonged to various nationality groups. Fifty-five
percent belonged to the Communist Party; forty percent belonged to the
Komsomol; the remainder had no party affiliations. The kit; and NCO s were
twenty to thirty years old-, Twenty percent of the NCOt s had reenlisted.
Breakdown according to nationalities (this presumably refers to NCOOs)o
Buryat-Mongolians: 35 percent; Kirgizes a 35 Wcercent Bsshkirss 10 per-
cent; Great Russians: 15 percent; Ukrainians and White Russians: 5 percent.
Breakdown according to party affiliations.- Members of the Communist Party
145 percent; members of the Komsomol - 45 percent; without party affilia-
tions - 10 percent.
Arms and E4Uipment
The regiment was equipped with 311 twin-engine, long range bombers (skorostniye
bombardirovsbch.ki dalnego deystviya, SBD). The aircraft were equipped with
Svoi-Chuzhoi type radars , operating on approximately 70-cm waves (friend-
foe identification sets). The regiment also had a mobile Redut-type. direction
finder mounted on two ZIS-5 trucks and a mobile field radio station also mounted
on ZIS trucks. Two U-2 aircraft were available for parachute training.
j& Fuel Dump
The fuel dump was located in a mountain gallery built into the northern slope
of the hill on the east side of the airfield., about 60 meters from the road,
250 meters from the landing fields and 350 meters .from the first hangar. The
12 cylindrical containers were embedded in concrete about 10 meters from the
exit of the gallery. The fuel dump had a total storage capacity of 100-1450
tons., but exact figures were not available. The electrically-operated fuel
pump was located 60 meters from the fuel dump. An underground fuel line ran
from the dump to the stand pipes at the airfield. POL was shipped by rail to
the storage shed of the airfield, from where it was transferred by railroad
tank cars to the airfield.
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9,, Bomb 1kop
The boob dump was built into a hill approximately " meters south-west of
the field. Details on the wei-ht and the uartity of the bombs stored were
unknown. The bomb dump was connecter' to the airfield by a narrow-gauge field
railroad line. Ammunition for machine guns and aircraft cannons was stored
in Dump No. 4. Concrete practice bombs were stored at the field.
10. Means of Transportation
The regiment was c:juipped with 30 motor vehicles, including 7 passenger cars,
15 trucks, and 8 special motor vehicles. Of the 8 special motor vehicles,
2 were 213-5 tank trickss 2 mobile workshops with trailers, 1 wreckers. The
drivers of the vehicles were members of the T3A0.
1%. Security Measures
The field was secured on the north by a concrete wall and on the south by
a barbed-wire fence. The latter was doubled in the area covered by brush.
Five guard houses were observed at the field. Watch towers provided with
searchlights were located in the southern and northern part of the field.
Interconnecting telephone lines linked the guardhousep and, the headquarters
building with the guardhouses. Vehicles and passfngers proceeding; along the
road near the railroad line were forbidden to stop at the airfield. Passen-
ger and freight trains did not stop at the track siding: Guard details were
furnished by the guard company of the BAO0
12 . Training Activities
a. Military training
(1) Bomb release. practice
(2) Night and blind flying
(3) Firing at towed air sleeve;.
(4) Practice alerts with subsequent
(5) Practice in mass bombing
(6) Parachuting
take-off of the entire regiment
The bombing target, grounds were located in the swamps Somewhere between
the Ksennevka and Orteushk'^ railroad stations.
Political ' indoctrination
Political indoctrination consisted of courses on the history of the all-
Russian Communist Party. the role played by the USSR in 'iorld ;ar II,
and the USA as instigator of the third ,orld war and aggressor in Korea.
Considerable emphasis was laid on political instruction::
~Gotm?,nt.: The Klyazma Air Force School is located 27 km northeast of
Moscow on the railroad line to Yaroslavl.
I boimnent: From the dimensions of the field, it is considered improb-
able that the field supports a long range bomber regiment-
Comment: The i a j. Gen. Safronov referred to in Paragraph 6 may
pessiol JAaJ. Gen, Semen Illarionovich Safronov who is an officer of
Aviation Engineers,
Attar, gnt. Layout of Sbegovski airfields.
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