Aeródromo de Cáceres
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Aeródromo de Caceres (as today Aeródromo de la Cervera known) is a former military airfield in the municipality of the city of Caceres in the autonomous region of Extremadura in Spain .
history
The Aeródromo de Cáceres military airfield was founded as a base for the Spanish Air Force in the early 1920s. The extensive facility with around 274 hectares had a number of buildings and bunkers that were located along the airfield. Half of the anti-aircraft guns to protect the airfield with the control building and casemate were buried in the ground. Runway 10/28 was around 1400 meters long.
During the Spanish Civil War , the airfield became known to the public when on August 26, 1936, General Francisco Franco , became the commander of the Spanish Legion and moved his headquarters to Cáceres. The Spanish Air Force stationed the first fighter squadron there with a Fiat CR.32 from Italy.
After Franco asked Hitler for military help , the unit of the German Wehrmacht was relocated to Cáceres. The flying troops of the Condor Legion use this airfield with type Ju 52 , Junkers W 34 , Bf 108 , Klemm L25 and fighter squadrons with He 51 as a base. After the delivery of the German tanks, the German Colonel Wilhelm von Thoma of the Condor Legion carried out driver training on the area of the airfield for several months . After the driver training, the tank unit was moved to Cubas de la Sagra , a place 30 kilometers south of Madrid on the Jarama River.
The Condor Legion set up the first airlift using Ju 52 transport aircraft and carried out the first massive air war in history against the Spanish civilian population. On July 23, 1937, Cáceres was bombed by Republican planes. In the air raid on Cáceres, several buildings and planes and facilities were destroyed.
After the end of the civil war in 1939, the Spanish air force Ejercito del Aire, which was newly established on October 7, 1939, continued to use the airfield, with the beginning of the jet age, the military lost interest in the location and finally gave it up at the end of the 1970s. After that it was used for a few years by the private aviation club Club de vuelo de Cáceres , which also use a hangar there and operate a small paved runway in the western part at the end of the large runway.
From the mid-1990s to 2002, outdoor parties took place on the square, with up to 5000 young people taking part in the so-called botellón . After the botellón parties had developed into a massive problem here as in other Spanish cities due to pollution and sometimes rioting, they were banned nationwide in 2002.
Due to the designation of a bird sanctuary (ZEPA) on the edge of the airfield in 2005, the area is now also used for local recreation. Regular flight operations no longer take place and are only used by ultralight aircraft.
Trivia
In mid-2006 it was reported in the Spanish press that there were several initiatives to reactivate the former airfield.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Campo de Vuelo de La Cervera on aviador.es
- ↑ La Cervera, el eterno proyecto de aeropuerto on elperiodicoextremadura.com
literature
- Walther L. Bernecker: La intervención alemana en la guerra civil española, Hf Contemporánea, págs. 77-104 (1992)