The Tukums airfield

Along the Ventspils highway, less than a kilometre before the turnoff to Tukums, there are hangars which have been overrun by grass and greenery and which can still be seen from a car. Once upon a time Soviet destroyers were housed there. During Soviet times, no one knew that there was a hidden airfield here. The truth is that the airfield was home not just destroyers, but also to portable and armed missile systems. Signs were put up warning of fire danger so as to mask the weapons from the eyes of curious civilians. Local residents probably thought that fuel, not missiles, were being transported. The airfield is now used for light aircraft. On April 8, 1950, by the way, the Soviet destroyers shot down a US airplane off the coast of Liepāja, claiming that it was in Soviet territorial waters and was spying. It is known that there were 10 men on board the aircraft, and no one knows what happened to them. The destroyers which shot down the plane came from the Tukums airfield. A German author, Wolfgang Schreier, recalled the incident in a novel called “Captain Loja’s Dream,” which was translated into Latvian and published in the Latvian SSR, apparently with the aim of casting the correct light on the event for Latvia’s eager readers. The book is still available in Latvian libraries.