Returning to the original topic again...
As we were saying. I have a silly doubt. Reading something about the fighting at Leningrad's frontline and some papers from my family, I've found some kind, for me, of a mistery.
One of the members of my family was a pilot with the I/Jagdgeschwader 54. He mentions in his diary that he served for some time in a place called Krasnogwardeisk, until he was injured in a dogfight and ended up in a hospital in that place -a city/village (?)- before he was sent back to Germany to recover.
I've tried to find Krasnogwardeisk on a map, but it seems that it's name now is Gatchina. Am I right?
Then, If I'm right, OK, let me ask something and please, be calm and don't get confused, because this is going to be a little mess. I'll try to clarify my point as I go.
If that Krasnogwardeisk is Gatchina and this Gatchina is the place that I think it is, it's the place where Catherine the Great granted to her favourite, count Orlov, who built a castle that Catherine bought again when Orlov died and gave to her son, the future Emperor Paul I. When Paul I became Tzar, Gatchina became an official residence of the Russian Emperors. Do you follow me? I hope so.
Then, if Krasnogwardeisk and that Gatchina are the same place, during WWI some medical hospitals in Gatchina were patronized by the IF, by the Tsar Nicholas II and his mother, the Dowager Empress of Russia, Maria Fedorovna, as well as his wife, the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna and their daughters: the Grand Duchesses Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria -IIRC, we have some threads about his issue.
My question is: Do we know what of those hospitals patronized by the IF were still running during WW2? I know it's a bit odd question, but I'm just curious about it.
Thanks in advance.
It is worth adding, methinks, that Gatchina is linked to the first steps of the history Russian aviation as Nesterov was trained at Gatchina airfield and made his first long-distance flight from Gatchina to Kiev in the 1900s or so, a time when the aviation industry was developing in Gatchina, eventually becoming one of the first centers of aviation and engine technology in Russia.
PS: It's my question clear enough? I hope so.