Landsberg / Lech Air Base
| Landsberg / Lech Air Base | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | ETSA |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 623 m (2044 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 5 km northeast of Landsberg am Lech, 1 km west of Penzing |
| Street |
|
| train | Freight station in the air base |
| Local transport | Bus routes 50, 61 and 60, operated by the LVG |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1935 |
| operator | German airforce |
| surface | 272 ha |
| Employees | over 2000 |
| Start-and runway | |
| 07/25 | 2066 m × 30 m concrete |
The Landsberg / Lech Air Base (also Penzing Air Base ) is an air base of the Bundeswehr in the Upper Bavarian district of Landsberg am Lech . It is mainly located within the municipality of Penzing , the runway extends to the Landsberg am Lech district . The air transport wing 61 ( LTG 61 for short ) and a shipyard of the Air Force Maintenance Regiment 1 were most recently located on this air base . In addition, the Flugsportgruppe Landsberg e. V. and the Fliegerclub Landsberg / Penzing e. V. a civilian sport and glider flight company.
history
Construction and use during World War II
From 1935 an air force was officially rebuilt in the German Reich . Suitable places for the construction of airfields were sought all over Germany . Penzing offered itself due to its favorable geographical location, navigation and technical aspects. Construction began in 1935 with the leveling of the ground and in the spring of 1936 some buildings were already being erected. A first division of the Luftwaffe took up service in Penzing on February 10, 1937 and was later supplemented by other soldiers. Regular operation began on March 1, 1937.
At the beginning the Combat Squadron 153 "Merseburg" was stationed there, which began flight operations with the Dornier Do 23 type . Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, the machines were replaced by Heinkel He 111 and the squadron was renamed Kampfgeschwader 51 "Edelweiss". The pilots were deployed on all fronts during the following years. Meanwhile, training courses for prospective pilots were carried out at the air base.
While Josef Kammhuber was commodore of the "Edelweiss Squadron", on May 10, 1940 three He 111s of the squadron mistakenly bombed Freiburg im Breisgau . 57 people died in the attack.
Towards the end of the war, Penzing Air Base was attacked twice by B-17 bombers of the American Air Force . A total of three hangars, the runway and the access roads were destroyed and many of the stationed aircraft were damaged. In the last days of the war the best German radar technicians were brought to Penzing.
The air base was occupied by a US armored division on April 28, 1945; the Allies referred to it from then on as Airfield R.78 .
In 1995 it became known for the first time through the publication of the citizens' association Landsberg in the 20th century around the critical homeland researcher Anton Posset in special issue 5 "The SS labor camp Landsberg 1944/45: French resistance fighters in the German concentration camp" that in addition to the previously known 11 concentration camps around Landsberg / Kaufering another concentration camp was located in Landsberg, on the air base. Mainly French slave laborers were housed there. The camp was not subject to the Dachau concentration camp command. Among the forced laborers was u. a. the later Nobel laureate in physics, Georges Charpak . On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Landsberg / Kaufering concentration camps, a German / French memorial plaque was donated by the citizens' association, jointly by Anton Posset and Marcel Miquet, the vice-president of the organization "Amicale des Anciens de Dachau" The gym in the air base was inaugurated.
The following table shows the complete list of all active flying units (excluding school and supplementary units) of the Wehrmacht Air Force that were stationed here between 1937 and 1945.
| From | To | unit | equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 1937 | April 1939 | Staff, I./KG 255 (Staff and I. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 255) | |
| May 1939 | June 1940 | Rod / KG 51 | Dornier Do 17M , Heinkel He 111H , Junkers Ju 88A |
| May 1939 | August 1939 | I./KG 51 | Dornier Do 17M, Heinkel He 111H |
| October 1939 | October 1939 | III./KG 27 | Heinkel He 111P |
| September 1939 | September 1939 | I./KG 30 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| November 1939 | June 1940 | III./KG 51 | Heinkel He 111H, Junkers Ju 88A |
| October 1941 | January 1942 | I./SKG 210 (I. Group of Schnellkampfgeschwader 210) | Messerschmitt Bf 110 |
| November 1941 | December 1941 | II./KG 54 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| January 1942 | January 1942 | 7th (H) / Enlightenment group 12 (7th season of local reconnaissance group 12) | |
| March 1942 | June 1942 | Staff, I., II./ZG 2 | Messerschmitt Bf 110C, Messerschmitt Bf 110E |
| July 1943 | August 1943 | I./KG 55 | Heinkel He 111H-16 |
| August 1943 | September 1943 | Battle group Sigel | |
| August 1944 | September 1944 | 2./NAGr. 13 (2nd season of night reconnaissance group 13) | Focke-Wulf Fw 189A |
| September 1944 | September 1944 | 1. (F) / Aufkl.Gr. 33 (1st squadron of long-range reconnaissance group 33) | Junkers Ju 88S-3, Junkers Ju 188D-2 , Messerschmitt Me 410A-1 |
Landsberg Air Base
On May 17, 1945, a company of the American 843rd Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived to restore flight operations. Accordingly, high priority was given to the repair of the runway. After the repair, the other buildings were also rebuilt by an Air Depot Group and in January 1946 the repair by the 862nd Engineer Battalion was completed.
In 1947 the 7280th Air Base Group was stationed in Penzing as a subordinate unit of the Erding Air Base . In 1949, the air base was named Landsberg Air Base and now operated under the command of the 2nd Air Division . On May 1, 1950, the 7030th Headquarters Support Group was relocated to Landsberg.
In 1953, the establishment of the 7351st Air Base Squadron began , which took control of the air base on July 1. Almost two years later, on April 1, 1955, a pilot training center was prepared. The 7351st Flying Training Group set up for this purpose was expanded and finally renamed the 7351st Flying Training Wing on October 1st . At that time, seven squadrons were stationed at the air base, the musician Johnny Cash was doing his military service at the air base during this time.
After West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the reconstruction of the Air Force began. The construction of new airfields and training facilities for German pilots began. Among other things, Landsberg was selected to participate in the further training of the German Air Force. On February 4, 1956, the first flight of a German pilot took place under the leadership of American instructors. Many of the pilots to be trained were WWII veterans. They had not flown an airplane for more than ten years, and hardly anyone had any experience with the now common ( supersonic ) jet aircraft . However, the switch to the new jets has been made easier in the previous two years by the fact that familiarization flights have already taken place on American aircraft types.
The newly established air force began building up pilot training. 40 Piper L-18A "Super Cub" were used for this. The extended training and the transition to jets took place at the American Air Force in Fürstenfeldbruck . There several new Lockheed T-33A "T-Bird" training aircraft could be used by the Air Force . The first ten jet pilots in the Air Force completed their training on September 24, 1956. From then on, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada was also used as an additional location for training .
The training continued until 1958; then the air base was handed over to the air force and the American squadrons withdrawn.
Use by the Air Force
After the handover of the airfield to the German Air Force, the pilot school A with the aircraft types Fouga Magister and North American T-6 was stationed in Penzing . Later the Helicopter Transport Wing 64 (HTG 64) followed with its Bell UH-1 D "Huey". From 1966, two search and rescue helicopters were also available here .
In 1971 the Lufttransportgeschwader 61 (LTG 61) was relocated from Neubiberg to the air base; it has since been the main user of the air base. In 1989 the anti-aircraft missile group 22 was finally transferred from Burbach to the air base . The last soldiers of the descendants of FlaRakGrp 22 left the air base on June 30, 2016.
As part of the transfer of helicopter capabilities between the Air Force and the Army , the "Hueys" were handed over to the 30th Transport Helicopter Regiment at the end of 2012 . After that, the army aviators held a few UH-1Ds at the Penzing location for SAR tasks in the Alps, but these were relocated to the Niederstetten army airfield at the end of 2016 after a total of 11,693 rescue missions . At the moment, in addition to the machines of the LTG 61, there are also regular flights for training jumps by soldiers from the Luftlande / Lufttransport training base of the Franz-Josef-Strauss barracks in Altenstadt .
In accordance with the Bundeswehr reform, it was planned to use the airfield until mid-2018, with Transall being discontinued at the end of September 2017. After that, only a technical component remains at the site for the production of high-quality parts. The property in Penzing should initially continue to be held in the Bundeswehr as a reserve and thus be relatively easy to reactivate if necessary.
Dissolution of the air transport squadron
The size of Lufttransportgeschwader 61 was initially reduced, with the commissioning of the Airbus A400M transport aircraft in Wunstorf , it was dissolved after a transitional phase on December 31, 2017. The remaining Transall C-160s were handed over to Air Transport Wing 63 in Hohn.
Air base
The air base was operated by the German Air Force . It has a runway with the landing and take-off directions 252 ° (west) and 072 ° (east). An instrument landing system (ILS) of operational level I was installed in landing direction 25, there was also a TACAN with the identification LAB (channel 58Y) and an omnidirectional radio beacon (identification LQ, 448 kHz) five nautical miles to the east as an extension of the runway; in 2018 these systems were gradually shut down.
The flight operations were directed by the local air traffic control with the callsigns "Landsberg Radar " and "Landsberg Tower ".
Start-and runway
The runway has a full length of 2251 m, whereby only 2066 m can be used. It has a width of 60 m with the asphalt shoulders, whereby only the middle concrete section of 30 m width can be used here. It has a maximum incline of 0.24%. The approach lights are located in the extension of the runway , for both approach directions, which are designed as white, one-sided radiating high-performance lights (short: AFLS) ( NATO standard). In addition, there are so-called PAPIs for both approach directions . As runway edge lighting, there are high-performance lights radiating on both sides along the entire length of the runway.
Units at the air base
Various units of the German Air Force were stationed at the air base:
- Parts of the weapon system support center
- The Bundeswehr Service Center Landsberg
- The Penzing fire station
Incidents
- On June 26, 1975 a Douglas DC-3 / C-47D of the Luftwaffe ( aircraft registration 14 + 07) crashed into an embankment of the Lech near Kaufering shortly after taking off from Landsberg / Lech air base . A mechanical failure that occurred after repairs was the cause of the accident. All three crew members were killed.
See also
literature
- The file for May 10, 1940 in the Freiburg city archives: C 4 / XI / 31/3, the city headquarters Freiburg i. Br. Rubric: military affairs, subject: air raid on May 10, 1940, issue 1 year 40/43.
- Heiko Haumann , Hans Schadek: History of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau . Volume 3, ISBN 3-8062-0857-3 , p. 359 ff.
- Anton Hoch: Quarterly magazine for contemporary history. 4, 1956, pp. 115-144.
- Anton Hoch: From Parliament and contemporary history. No. B XXI / 56 of April 23, 1956, pp. 321-332.
- Local association Freiburg-Stühlinger (ed.): Der Stühlinger: Festschrift for the 850th anniversary of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau. Freiburg 1970.
- Local association Freiburg-Stühlinger (publisher): 100 years of Stühlinger: 1885–1985. Freiburg 1985.
- Gerd R. Ueberschär , Wolfram Wette : Bombs and Legends. The gradual reconnaissance of the air raid on Freiburg on May 10, 1940. Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 1981, ISBN 3-7930-0292-6 .
- Gerd R. Ueberschär: Freiburg in the air war 1939-1945 . Freiburg i. Br. 1990, ISBN 3-87640-332-4 .
Web links
- Location Penzing on Luftwaffe.de
- Information on the concentration camp at the air base: Landsberg citizens' association in the 20th century: The SS labor camp in Landsberg or at the European Holocaust memorial: The SS labor camp in the Penzing air base 1944/1945
- Last inspection in Penzing on Luftwaffe.de on June 29, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ Flugsportgruppe Landsberg e. V. , accessed on July 7, 2020
- ^ The SS labor camp Landsberg 1944/45: French resistance fighters in the German concentration camp. Retrieved June 19, 2018 .
- ^ The Colonel Rolf Korth affair: French resistance fighters visit the place of their deportation. Retrieved June 19, 2018 .
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-1945 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 370-372 , accessed on 29 August 2014
- ↑ Volker Schmidt: The prisons of the man in black. In: zeit.de. Zeit Online, February 26, 2012, accessed October 4, 2015 .
- ↑ German Army: Last mission for the rescue team from Landsberg. In: German Army. Retrieved February 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Dieter Schöndorfer: Bundeswehr does not give up Penzing Air Base. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. March 9, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2017 .
- ↑ www.br-online.de ( Memento from November 3, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) from January 26, 2008
- ↑ Dieter Schöndorfer: Location closings: The Transall remain in Penzing. In: augsburger-allgemeine.de. Augsburger Allgemeine, June 12, 2012, accessed October 4, 2015 .
- ↑ Welcome to the LTG 61 Air Base Fire Brigade.Retrieved on June 19, 2018 .
- ^ Accident report DC-3 14 + 07 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 26, 2019.