Ansbach-Katterbach airfield

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Katterbach Barracks
Ansbach Army Heliport
12th Combat Aviation Brigade Headquarters overlooking the Katterbach Army Airfield in Ansbach 2016.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code ETEB
Coordinates

49 ° 18 ′ 33 "  N , 10 ° 38 ′ 13"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 33 "  N , 10 ° 38 ′ 13"  E
Height above MSL 468 m (1535  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 4 km east of Ansbach
Street B 14
Basic data
opening 1938
operator US Army
Start-and runway
08/26 370 m × 20 m asphalt



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The Katterbach Kaserne is a military airfield four kilometers east of Ansbach . The former air base of the Air Force than today helipad from the United States Army used (US Army). The US armed forces refer to the base as Katterbach Army Airfield or Ansbach Army Heli Pad (Ansbach AHP), the associated barracks are the Katterbach and Bismarck barracks. The square is the main use of space stationed in Europe CH-47 - and UH-60 - transport helicopter and the AH-64 - combat helicopter of the US Army Aviation . Together with the nearby airfield in Illesheim , the area forms the core of the US Army Garrison (USAG) Ansbach.

history

Air Force Air Base

The following table shows the complete list of all active flying units (without school associations) of the Wehrmacht Air Force that were stationed here between 1937 and 1945.

From To unit equipment
April 1937 1938/39 Staff, II./KG 155 (Staff and II. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 155)
July 1938 April 1939 Staff, I./KG 355
May 1939 February 1940 Staff, I./KG 53 Heinkel He 111
August 1939 October 1939 1. (F) / Aufkl.Gr. 123 (1st squadron of long-range reconnaissance group 123)
February 1940 May 1940 Staff, II./KG 2 Dornier Do 17Z
June 1941 July 1941 III./KG 40 Heinkel He 111
September 1941 January 1942 II./KG 77 Junkers Ju 88A
January 1942 July 1942 III./KG 53 Heinkel He 111H-6
May 1942 July 1942 15. (Croat.) / KG 53 (15th Squadron of Kampfgeschwader 53 (Croatian Airmen)) Dornier Do 17Z-3
March 1943 May 1943 I./KG 76 Junkers Ju 88A-4
August 1943 April 1944 Staff, I./ZG 76 (Staff and I. Group of Destroyer Squadron 76) Messerschmitt Bf 110G-2
May 1944 June 1944 III./JG 3 ( III.Group of Jagdgeschwader 3) Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6
May 1944 June 1944 Staff JG z. b. V. (Staff Jagdgeschwader for special use)
June 1944 June 1944 Staff JG 4 Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6
July 1944 July 1944 IV./JG 3 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8
August 1944 September 1944 Special Association “Unicorn” KG 200

At the end of April 1945 the airfield, which had been rendered unusable by the withdrawing German troops, was occupied by the 3rd US Army and, after a brief repair, was used as Airfield R.45 for a short time as an operational airfield by the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) . P-47s of the 354th Fighter Group lay here until May 1945 .

Ansbach Air Depot / Katterbach barracks

Entrance to the Katterbach barracks

After the fighter planes had withdrawn, the location was initially a maintenance and logistics location of the USAAF and in May 1947 it was transferred to the United States Army , which renamed it Katterbach Kaserne. After the end of the occupation, the former air base became a NATO facility and the location of the 1st Armored Division (1st AD) of the United States Army. A large number of different units of the 1st AD used the barracks in the following decades and in 1964 the airfield became the location of the American army aviators . The Bismarck barracks on the other side of Bundesstraße 14 was the location of 1-37 Armor , a tank battalion that was relocated to Vilseck in 1988 , between 1970 and 1988 . Subsequently, the Battalion 1-1 Cavalry was located here until it was deactivated and then parts of the 1st Infantry Division Aviation until 2006 .

After a reorganization, the base housed two battalions of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade (12th CAB), the 3-158th Assault Helicopter Battalion (AHB) and the 5-158th General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB), with a total of four companies from 2006 to 2015 UH-60 and a company CH-47 were in command.

On April 29, 2015, the United States Army announced an extensive troop reduction in connection with the restructuring of the 12th Combat Helicopter Brigade. The implementation took place in the same year, with all UH-60s (64 including part of the companies of the 1-214th battalion of the 12th CAB located in Wiesbaden and Landstuhl ) and four of twelve CH-47 being withdrawn. One of the AH-64 battalions previously stationed in Illesheim came to Ansbach as a replacement.

Todays use

US UH-60 transport helicopter of the 227th Aviation Regiment in October 2017

The base currently (2020) houses a company ( company ) transport helicopters and a battalion attack helicopters of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade as well as changing units that are normally stationed in the USA.

  • B Company of the 1-214th General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB), armed with some CH-47F . The majority of the 1-214th GSAB is stationed at Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield.
  • 1-3rd Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (ARS), armed with AH-64

In addition, there are so-called Rotational Aviation Forces of other combat brigades, which are being temporarily relocated from the USA to Europe for a few months.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 22-24 retrieved on August 28, 2014
  2. ^ US Army Europe Public Affairs: Restructuring of the 12th Combat Helicopter Brigade. In: www.army.mil. Retrieved May 2, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Army Europe leaders want more helicopters to fill 'aviation deficit', Defense News, December 1, 2015  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.defensenews.com  
  4. ↑ US Army is massively upgrading combat brigade in Franconia, Northern Bavaria, September 23, 2016