Warsaw 1945

I was pleasantly surprised to find some image overlays from 1945, and note that some other European cities have similar overlays.

The location is currently the Warsaw International Airport (Fryderyk Chopin), and the bombed-out runway actually still exists. 

Can anybody identify the dozen or saw visible airplanes on the ground?

Attachments:

Warsaw Bombed 1945.kmz (801 B)

 Can anybody identify the dozen or saw visible airplanes on the ground?

Yup, easy I thought - the arrowhead planform of the mighty Douglas DC3/C47 is unmistakeable from the air, and these look and measure like DC3/C47s.

And then I got to thinking - hang on, what was a bunch of US aircraft doing in Warsaw in early 1945, when most of the Allied troops were still fighting their way across Germany to Berlin?.  In fact, Warsaw was not "liberated" (hah!) until 17th Jan 1945 by Soviet forces.  So, given that the date stamps on these wartime images are unreliable, these must be Soviet aircraft, and there is only one which resembles the DC3, and that is the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisunov_Li-2.  This was a version of the DC3 design built under license in Russia and Uzbekistan before and during WW2.



So that accounts for most of the aircraft at your placemark, Scraps - I'll have a go at the others later.

Interesting post, thanks!

Cheers,

Frank

May 8, 2017 17:27:19 GMT frankmcvey (Angel) said:

 Can anybody identify the dozen or saw visible airplanes on the ground?

And then I got to thinking - hang on, what was a bunch of US aircraft doing in Warsaw in early 1945, when most of the Allied troops were still fighting their way across Germany to Berlin?.  In fact, Warsaw was not "liberated" (hah!) until 17th Jan 1945 by Soviet forces.  So, given that the date stamps on these wartime images are unreliable, these must be Soviet aircraft, and there is only one which resembles the DC3, and that is the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisunov_Li-2.  This was a version of the DC3 design built under license in Russia and Uzbekistan before and during WW2.



Indeed, being behind the iron curtain makes it a little more challenging.  Looks like there are 4 or 5 different types of smaller aircraft around too... 

Thank you for the info Frank.  Good stuff!