Zeljava Underground Airforce Base, Croatia.
Known as "Objekat 505", the Zeljava Airbase was built in 1965, to service the Yugoslavian Airforce. Costing around $6 Billion, it comprises a system of tunnels designed to accommodate fixed wing aircraft built into the base of Mount Pljesevica, the tunnels capable of 3.5kms worth of storage, 'nose to tail' in a one way loop, with turning bays and workshops, not to mention a system of conveyor tunnels between them. The tunnels were designed to withstand a 20 kilotonne nuclear event, and was self sufficient with a population of 1000 people, for up to a month.
Five runways criss-crossed the area north of the base, the longest measuring 3.6kms, and in the day, these were protected by soldiers ordered to shoot on site any trespassers, a fusillade of surface to air missiles protecting from anything overhead.
During the Yugoslavian Wars, the site was stripped, the tunnels filled with explosives to undermine their integrity, and anti personell mines stewn around the airfeilds.
Our trip there was one of trepidation. Awareness that we were going to be wandering around mined areas, coupled with the fact that the airfield straddles the Bosnian/Croatian border had us wary...
We arrived to find a DC-3 and two unidentified US fighter planes anchored to the ground, swamped in overgrown foilage. Making sure to 'keep off the grass', we took a look.
The DC-3.
The Fighters.
We had a look around the Barracks, then drove to the mountain. The narrow road was soon being flanked by Landmine Warning signs, so we aimed to stay well and truely on the concrete and headed for one of the tunnel entrances.
The tunnels are big, averaging around 20ft tall by 40ft wide. They were moderately labyrinthine given their size, with the looped system allowing planes to enter at one end and exit and one of two of the other ends.
We saw a few areas that had been damaged by explosives, but nothing that could account for the supposed 57 tonnes used in 1991.
Wandering to the far end we encountered a couple of the 100 tonne blast doors, violently removed from their placement, rendered prone on the floor.
(by Snappel)
The entrance and exit tunnels were quaint... 'Plane Shaped'.
Upon exiting, we stepped briefly over the border, just for the novelty, then headed back to the car, arriving just in time to see some locals chasing their van down the runway after one of them had left the handbrake off. We took it as a cue to try a speed test in our own hire car. Snappel managed to get the Seat Leon up to 185kph on the runway before we ran out of tarmac.
We then posed like the Top Gun's we are ;)
(pic by Snappel)
Five runways criss-crossed the area north of the base, the longest measuring 3.6kms, and in the day, these were protected by soldiers ordered to shoot on site any trespassers, a fusillade of surface to air missiles protecting from anything overhead.
During the Yugoslavian Wars, the site was stripped, the tunnels filled with explosives to undermine their integrity, and anti personell mines stewn around the airfeilds.
Our trip there was one of trepidation. Awareness that we were going to be wandering around mined areas, coupled with the fact that the airfield straddles the Bosnian/Croatian border had us wary...
We arrived to find a DC-3 and two unidentified US fighter planes anchored to the ground, swamped in overgrown foilage. Making sure to 'keep off the grass', we took a look.
The DC-3.
The Fighters.
We had a look around the Barracks, then drove to the mountain. The narrow road was soon being flanked by Landmine Warning signs, so we aimed to stay well and truely on the concrete and headed for one of the tunnel entrances.
The tunnels are big, averaging around 20ft tall by 40ft wide. They were moderately labyrinthine given their size, with the looped system allowing planes to enter at one end and exit and one of two of the other ends.
We saw a few areas that had been damaged by explosives, but nothing that could account for the supposed 57 tonnes used in 1991.
Wandering to the far end we encountered a couple of the 100 tonne blast doors, violently removed from their placement, rendered prone on the floor.
(by Snappel)
The entrance and exit tunnels were quaint... 'Plane Shaped'.
Upon exiting, we stepped briefly over the border, just for the novelty, then headed back to the car, arriving just in time to see some locals chasing their van down the runway after one of them had left the handbrake off. We took it as a cue to try a speed test in our own hire car. Snappel managed to get the Seat Leon up to 185kph on the runway before we ran out of tarmac.
We then posed like the Top Gun's we are ;)
(pic by Snappel)
