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| Berca Airfield | |
|---|---|
| Bengazi, Libya | |
 German Luftwaffe oblique airphoto of Berca Airfield | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Civil Airport/Military Airfield |
| Controlled by | .svg) ItalianRegia Aeronautica GermanLuftwaffe United States Army Air Forces |
| Location | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 32°05′29″N020°04′43″E / 32.09139°N 20.07861°E /32.09139; 20.07861[1] |
| Site history | |
| Built | Before 1940 |
| In use | 1940-1943 |
Berca Airfield is a former civil airport and military airfield, located in the Al Birkah suburb ofBenghazi, Libya.
The facility appears to be a pre-World War II civil airport which may have also been used by the ItalianRegia Aeronautica Air Force. After the Italian invasion of Egypt and the arrival of the German Luftwaffe in 1941, it was used by the Axis as a military airfield.
After the seizure of Bengazi by the British Eighth Army during the Western Desert Campaign in early 1943, it was used by theUnited States Army Air Force during theNorth African Campaign by the98th Bombardment Group, which flewB-24 Liberator heavy bombers from the airfield between 26 March-4 April 1943.
In the 1950s and 1960s Berka II was Detachment 3 (a radar site ) of the633rd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, which had its main site at Wheelus Air Force Base at Tripoli and Detachment 2 at Misurata, both in Libya.[2]
Its subsequent postwar history is unknown, today the area has been rebuilt into part of the urban area of Benghazi.
From about 1960 to 1967 or thereabouts the airstrip was used as a base by World Wide Helicopters Ltd who were flying both small fixed wing aircraft and helicopters in support of oil exploration activity in the desert.[3] Two airfields south of Berca were Berca-2, which had by the 1980s been demolished and Berca-3, which had still existed in the 1980s and was demolished as well. They both had 2 runways.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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