In this photo-set, Italian historian Giuseppe Marini shows us the abandoned site of Cutella airstrip, the field from which 3 Squadron (of all its WW2 Landing Grounds) operated for the longest period.
(Amazingly, "Cutella" is not an Italian place-name, it's a Queensland aboriginal word meaning "Eagle" and was adopted by 239 Wing when this metal-plate strip was set up in the sand-dunes beside the Adriatic.)
Painting by Dennis Adams. 3 Squadron
Kittyhawk at Cutella, March 1944. Note the steam train carrying Army
tanks, visible in the distance
[AWM
ART22244]
This is the national road SS 16 on the lowland.
This road
represents almost the exact center of the old airfield.
To the left it is possible to see the mountains of the Maiella. In that
direction there was the German "Gustav" Line.
The airplanes from
Cutella often went there
for their missions.
This is the national
road SS 16 on the lowland, looking North.
The
airfield began just a few meters after the
bridge of the Mergolo stream.
To the left in the
hill there is the railroad joining the cities: Bari
(left) and Pescara
(to the right).
The grey stream at left marked the northern boundary of Cutella.
First
view of the small stream, without name, that races toward the Adriatic
Sea .
This is the end
point of the old airfield.
Update 2016:
Bruce Nash, the son of 3SQN's Commanding Officer at Cutella in 1944
(Murray Nash),
has supplied a recent satellite photo showing the strong erosion currently
occurring
where the beach san-dunes had been bulldozed to allow the PSP metal runway
to be laid out.
Armourers and Engine Fitters working on a
Kittyhawk at Cutella, April 1944.
[AWM MEC1374.]
See also: Bruce Burchfield's Cutella Diary.