Coleman Barracks
| Coleman Army Airfield Sandhofen Air Base |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | ETOR |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 94 m (308 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 10 km north of Mannheim |
| Street |
 
|
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1935 |
| closure | 2013 (as an airfield) |
| operator | US Army |
| Start-and runway | |
| 05/23 | 916 m × 23 m asphalt |
The Coleman Barracks are an American barracks with a military airfield ( Coleman Army Airfield ) in the north of Mannheim , near the Sandhofen district in the Scharhof district. It belonged to the now dissolved US garrison Mannheim (now part of the US garrison Rhineland-Palatinate) and is the last property used by the US armed forces in Mannheim. In 2015, 1200 vehicles and equipment, including 250 tanks, were stored on the approx. 220 hectare site.
history
Sandhofen Air Base
The Sandhofen Air Base of the German Air Force was established north of Sandhofen in 1935 . The following table shows a list of some active flying units (excluding school and supplementary associations) that were stationed here between 1939 and 1945.
| From | To | unit | equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 1937 | October 1938 | II./JG 334 (II. Group of Jagdgeschwader 334) | Arado Ar 68E , Heinkel He 51 , Messerschmitt Bf 109B, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| July 1938 | October 1938 | III./JG 334 | Arado Ar 68E, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| November 1938 | April 1939 | II./JG 133 | Messerschmitt Bf 109D, Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| October 1939 | March 1940 | I./JG 51 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| October 1939 | May 1940 | Staff / JG 52 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| November 1939 | May 1940 | V. (Z) / LG 1 (V. Group of Lehrgeschwader 1) | Messerschmitt Bf 110C, Messerschmitt Bf 110D |
| June 1940 | July 1940 | IV. (Stuka) / LG 1 | Junkers Ju 87B |
| December 1940 | February 1941 | II., III./JG 51 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E, Messerschmitt Bf 109F |
| February 1941 | May 1941 | Staff, I./JG 3 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| May 1941 | September 1941 | Stab, I./JG 53 | Messerschmitt Bf 109F |
| June 1943 | June 1943 | I./KG 77 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
The US Army advanced to the air base from March 26-29, 1945, occupied it and temporarily named it Y-79. A huge tent city was set up and several buildings were restored. In four days the airfield was made airworthy again and the first flying unit, the 358th Tactical Fighter Group with North American P-51 Mustang and Lockheed P-38 Lightning , was relocated there. The tent city grew bigger and bigger and developed into a transit camp for material and personnel for all of Germany.
Coleman Barracks and Airfield
Y-79 had an excellent infrastructure that was not destroyed by the war, direct rail connections, the Rhine as a waterway, airfield and motorway connection to Frankfurt and Heidelberg. In 1951, pre-war buildings were restored, the main entrance was rebuilt and 40 new accommodations were built right next to the motorway. The US Army had decided to develop the Y-79 into a large base for tank and transport units.
The airfield was demarcated and on May 11, 1951, the Y-79 became today's Coleman Barracks and Coleman Army Airfield (Coleman AAF ).
Lieutenant Colonel Wilson D. Coleman, after whom the barracks was named, had shown particular bravery in front of the enemy on July 30, 1944 in Saint-Denis, France, by stopping an entire German tank column with his bazooka before he fell . For this he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and was reburied in the National Cemetery of Arlington, Virginia on January 25, 1949. With the naming, Lieutenant Colonel Wilson D. Coleman was posthumously erected a memorial.
On February 23, 1952, units of the 8th US Infantry Division with hundreds of tanks and a strength of 3500 men moved into the barracks. The 8th US Infantry Division was deactivated on January 17, 1992 at a solemn ceremony in Bad Kreuznach and the units stationed in Mannheim were transferred to the USA. In the following years, the Coleman Barracks became the largest and only helicopter yard of the United States Army outside the United States. In 1982 a huge shipyard was built. The supervised unit is the 502nd Aviation Regiment. By the early 1980s, Coleman had more aircraft movements than any other US Army airfield in Europe. In the late 1980s, things calmed down, the infantry left Coleman and 37th Transportation units moved in. 1996 and 1998 to early 2002 there was no airborne unit and no air traffic control. Since February 23, 2002 Coleman is active again. The hangars were renovated and the apron was greatly enlarged. A new tower, the largest and most modern in the US Army in Europe, was built. Coleman Radar, which carries out the approach and departure control for Coleman and the neighboring civil airfields Mannheim City , Speyer and Worms [Document?] , Moved in. On July 11, 2013, the control zone of the military airfield that had existed until then was abolished.
Units and facilities
The American Forces Network (AFN) broadcasting network was founded to provide broadcasts to US soldiers in Europe. The AFN European headquarters was located in the Coleman Barracks from 2004 to 2013. It was merged from Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main to Mannheim. In 2013, the European headquarters were temporarily relocated from Coleman Barracks to Ramstein Air Base , and in 2014 to the Sembach barracks near Kaiserslautern .
The Coleman Barracks also have two areas, separated only by a public road. On the one hand, there is a central fuel store with several large petrol, kerosene and diesel tanks, the so-called "tank farm", and on the other hand there is the BEQ NCO's residential area.
To secure flight operations, the American armed forces maintain a fire station on the site, whose vehicles are sometimes deployed in the event of fires in the civilian sector.
The only military prison (Confinement Facility) of the American armed forces in Europe was located on a partitioned and specially secured area . In BND - Investigative Committee of the German Bundestag in 2009 allegations of language came that in this prison in 2003 and 2006, prisoners were tortured. The Federal Prosecutor's Office did not start any investigation.
Future of the site
In 2010 the US Army announced that it would withdraw completely from the Rhine-Neckar area by 2015. The return of the approx. 220 hectare Coleman site was announced for February 2015. Since the site is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, it is the responsibility of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks to market the conversion area after it has been returned . The announcement of the withdrawal sparked extensive discussions about re-use. Very different ideas and interests were expressed, from the lake landscape to the commercial airport.
The conversion office, which was responsible for the conversion in Mannheim on behalf of the city administration, held public and non-public participation events, where citizens could present their ideas and discuss them with experts. The conversion office itself is promoting a road logistics center for the promotion of electric heavy goods traffic (green logistics) .
At the request of the Naturschutzbund , the regional council of Karlsruhe, the higher nature conservation authority, carried out a biotope mapping . Over 160 endangered animal species were found on the site. The authority points out the need for protection and suggests designating around 80 hectares as a nature reserve. The city would like this area to be included in the National Natural Heritage . Then the federal government would make the site available free of charge. The state of Baden-Württemberg has submitted a corresponding application.
In mid-January 2015 it became public that the US Army would still need the area for several years. The conversion plans are therefore obsolete. On May 4, 2015, units from the 16th Sustainment Brigade and 21th Theater Sustainment Command began to move into the area , equipped with M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley tanks. In the future, the revitalized base will serve the rapid reaction group in Eastern Europe, according to the Pentagon sources. Since the costs of material transport from the USA are too expensive, the equipment is stored in a preserved condition if necessary so that it is quickly available even without permanent crews. The teams will then fly into the barracks from the USA using an airlift .
In April 2018, the discussion was about setting up a central arrival center for refugees (with accommodation) on the civilian part of the site. In 2018 there were plans to designate the site as a nature reserve.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ t-online.de: USA reactivate military camps in Europe - also accessed in Germany on September 3, 2015, from September 1, 2015
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 425-427 , accessed on 9 March 2020th
- ^ Wilson Dudley Coleman Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army
- ↑ Deutsche Flugsicherung : Selected corrections to the ICAO aeronautical chart In: Luftfahrthandbuch AIP GEN 0-19. July 11th 2013
- ↑ P. Blechschmidt: "The garbage disposal also wears orange overalls". In: sueddeutsche.de . May 17, 2010, accessed April 23, 2017 .
- ^ Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks: Description of the Coleman property
- ↑ Konversionsbüro Stadt Mannheim: Presentations on the Coleman Barracks ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Naturschutzbund: Statement and link to the report of the regional council ( memento of the original from January 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ City of Mannheim: Baden-Württemberg applies for inclusion in the "National Natural Heritage"
- ^ City of Mannheim: return delayed
- ↑ https://www.rnz.de/nachrichten/mannheim_artikel,-coleman-barracks-in-mannheim-die-amerikaner-bleiben-laenger-_arid,318171.html
- ^ City of Mannheim: "US Army invites you to visit Coleman", accessed on September 27, 2015
- ↑ Staff Sgt. Warren W. Wright Jr .: US tanks unloaded in Antwerp are transported to Mannheim by barge. In: Luftpost-kl. April 28, 2015, accessed July 13, 2015 .
- ^ Hardy Prothmann: tanks and equipment in the Rheinau harbor. In: Rheinneckarblog. April 30, 2015, accessed May 4, 2015 .
- ^ Coleman-Baracks Mannheim: No withdrawal of the US Army. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Coleman - Plans for a New Nature Reserve | Mannheim.de. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
