Borizzo Airfield

37°53′47.71″N 012°32′21.57″E / 37.8965861°N 12.5393250°E / 37.8965861; 12.5393250TypeMilitary AirfieldHeight58mSite informationControlled byItalian Regia AeronauticaConditionabandonedSite historyBuilt1930sBuilt byItalian Regia AeronauticaIn usetill 1971Materialstarmac (RWY 2/20, 1.600m)Garrison informationOccupantsUnited States Army Air Forces

Borizzo Airfield (Trapani–Chinisia airport) is an abandoned World War II military airfield in Italy, which was located in the vicinity of Trapani on Sicily.

History

It was built in the 1930s near the village of Borgo Rizzo and used by Axis forces as a base for the Italian Regia Aeronautica. During the Sicilian Campaign it was seized by elements of the United States Fifth Army. Once in Allied hands, it was used by the United States Army Air Force Twelfth Air Force 316th Troop Carrier Group, which flew C-47 Skytrains from the field between 18 October 1943 and 12 February 1944.

When the Americans pulled out the airfield was handed back to the Italians that rebuilt the airport in 1949. The airport operated military and commercial flights until 1961 when the new Trapani–Birgi Airport was opened. It was finally abandoned in 1971 by the Italian Air Force and closed.

Today the only remaining pieces of the airport are the runway, the control tower and a few smaller buildings.

The name

The Italians called the airport Trapani–Chinisia after the nearby river Chinisia but the allies used on their planes the name of the nearby village of Borgo Rizzo that was abbreviated on the documents as Borizzo. The official name of the airport was Aeroporto di Trapani-Chinisia and was also named in 1949 after the Italian aviator Livio Bassi.^[1]

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Maurer Maurer, ed. (1961). Air Force Combat Units of World War II: History and Insignia. Zenger Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
• Maurer Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2009.