Jever Airfield
| Jever Air Base Jever Air Base RAF Jever |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | ETNJ |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 7 m (23 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 4 km south of Jever |
| Street | approx. 8 km to the 
|
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1936 |
| closure | 2013 (flight operations) |
| operator | air force |
| Start-and runway | |
| 10/28 | 2480 m × 30 m concrete |
The Jever Air Base (formerly Aerodrome Jever ) is now entwidmeter German air base of the Air Force in the field of cities Schortens and Jever . The name of the location is Schortens. After flight operations were discontinued at the end of September 2013, the airfield served as the location of the object protection regiment of the Air Force "Friesland" .
location
About three quarters of the Jever military airfield , located in the middle of the Upjever Forest , belongs to the Upjever district of the city of Schortens . The latter also houses the main driveway on Upjeverschen Straße, located about two kilometers west of the town center. The western quarter of the air base is in the Cleverns district of the city of Jever . After the Second World War, the housing estate along Upjeverschen Strasse, including the school, was also under military administration. With the withdrawal of the British armed forces living there, this was handed over to the local government.
history
Wehrmacht air base
Construction of the airfield began in 1935 and on May 1, 1936 the facility was handed over to the Air Force . The square was used by various Luftwaffe units before and during World War II. The I./Kampfgeschwader 25, renamed I. Gruppe / Kampfgeschwader 30 on September 22, 1939, was located here. The following table shows the complete list of all active flying units (excluding school and supplementary units) of the Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht that were stationed here between 1937 and 1945.
| From | To | unit | equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 1934 | June 1936 | Air service tow squadron North Sea | |
| October 1936 | October 1938 | I./JG 136 (I. Group of Jagdgeschwader 136) | Arado Ar 64 , Arado Ar 65 , Heinkel He 51 |
| November 1938 | April 1939 | I./St.G 162 (I. Group of Sturzkampfgeschwader 162) | Junkers Ju 87B |
| September 1939 | September 1939 | 1./KG 25 (1st squadron of Kampfgeschwaders 25) | Junkers Ju 88A |
| September 1939 | September 1939 | I./KG 30 (I. Gruppe des Kampfgeschwaders 30) | Junkers Ju 88A |
| September 1939 | September 1939 | 10th (night) / ZG 26 (10th (night hunting) squadron of destroyer squadron 26) | Arado Ar 68F , Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| September 1939 | November 1939 | II. (Hunting) / Carrier Group 186 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| October 1939 | November 1939 | III./LG 1 ( III.Group of Lehrgeschwader 1) | Heinkel He 111H |
| November 1939 | May 1943 | Staff / JG 1 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E, Focke-Wulf Fw 190A |
| December 1939 | February 1940 | 11th (night) / LG 2 (11th (night hunting) squadron of training squadron 2) | Arado Ar 68E, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| December 1939 | February 1940 | 10. (night) / JG 26 | Arado Ar 68E, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| December 1939 | March 1940 | II./JG 77 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| December 1939 | April 1940 | I./ZG 76 | Messerschmitt Bf 110 |
| February 1940 | April 1940 | 12. (night) / JG 2 | Arado Ar 68F, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| May 1940 | May 1940 | 11. (night) / JG 2 | Arado Ar 68F, Messerschmitt Bf 109D |
| June 1940 | June 1940 | I./JG 51 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| August 1940 | August 1940 | II./JG 52 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| September 1940 | September 1940 | II./JG 51 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| September 1940 | May 1941 | II./ZG 76 | Messerschmitt Bf 110 |
| November 1940 | January 1941 | 3./JG 54 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| June 1941 | June 1941 | 6./JG 53 | Messerschmitt Bf 109F |
| September 1941 | March 1943 | I./JG 1 | Messerschmitt Bf 109E |
| December 1941 | February 1942 | Relay / JFS 1 | |
| 1942 | 1943 | Mausi special command | Junkers Ju 52 / 3m , Dornier Do 23 , Blohm & Voss BV 138 |
| April 1943 | October 1943 | Staff, II./JG 11 | Messerschmitt Bf 109G-1 |
| October 1943 | October 1943 | Hunting relay Heligoland | Messerschmitt Bf 109T |
| January 1944 | June 1944 | I./KG 54 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| August 1944 | ? | Distress group 80, distress squadron 80 | Dornier Do 18 , Dornier Do 24 , Messerschmitt Me 410 |
| October 1944 | March 1945 | 5./KG 53 | Heinkel He 111H-20 |
| December 1944 | March 1945 | IV./NJG 3 | Junkers Ju 88G-1, Junkers Ju 88G-6 |
From the Cold War to the present
Since there was hardly any damage here during the war, all the facilities were taken over by the Allies immediately after the end of the war. It was temporarily used as Airfield B.117 , its allied code name, by the Second Tactical Air Force of the British Royal Air Force . At the beginning of September 1945 the 664th Squadron , equipped with Auster Mk. IV / V , was located here , before former forced laborers and later units of the Danish armed forces were housed there.
In the spring of 1951, it was taken over by the Royal Air Force and, in this context, a paved runway was built. Flight operations at what was now the Royal Air Force Station Jever , or RAF Jever for short , were resumed in 1952 by the Second Tactical Air Force . Here, for example, was the 112th Squadron , which was the RAF's first Hawker Hunter Association in Germany from April 1956 , initially equipped with the F4 variant. In the following spring, the squadron consisted of four flying squadrons, but two were already disbanded in 1957. The two remaining squadrons were decommissioned in 1959 and late 1960. One of the Hunter pilots stationed here was the later (especially Harrier) test pilot John Farley (article only in English).
In 1961, RAF Jever was handed over to the German Air Force , which carried out flight operations from 1964.
.jpg)
From 1961 to 1973, the Air Defense Missile Battalion 26 was stationed at the airfield in Upjever, now again referred to as Jever Air Base, and from 1964 training on Lockheed F-104G Starfighter took place in the Air Force 10 weapons school . With the change to the Panavia Tornado from 1983 to August 31, 2005, the school was renamed to Fighter Bomber Wing 38 "Friesland". In addition, from February 28, 1967, the 1st Squadron of Air Force Supply Regiment 7 was responsible for maintaining the Starfighter. From April 1, 1970 the unit was called Feldwerft F-104 and later Feldwerft F-4F for the newly stationed McDonnell F-4F Phantom . From January 1982 the name was changed to Air Force Shipyard 62.
In the last decade of the Cold War, in an emergency, Jever would also have been a Forward Operating Location (FOL) for A-10 ground attack aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wings (81st TFW) based on the British twin base RAF Bentwaters / RAF Woodbridge . Until the end of 1988 it would have been A-10 of the 509th Tactical Fighter Squadron (509th TFS) from Woodbridge and from the beginning of 1989 the 511th TFS of the 10th TFW from RAF Alconbury .
From September 1, 1987 to August 31, 1989, a total of 24,184 take-offs and landings were carried out. On July 1, 2002, the Air Force Shipyard 62 was renamed Air Force Maintenance Group 21 (LIG 21).
On September 26, 2013, flight operations ended after 77 years with the last take-off of a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk . It was de- designated as an airfield at the end of September 2013 and is part of the Bundeswehr reform . The airfield yard was closed at the end of 2014. Until then, the former Air Force Maintenance Group 21 had broken up the last Phantoms.
The former Unteroffizier Lehr- und Sicherheitsstaffel (ULS) of the air base was absorbed into the object protection battalion in 1997 and advanced to the object protection regiment of the Air Force "Friesland" on June 30, 2006 . By concentrating the appropriate units, it should grow to a head strength of over 2000 soldiers and thus represent the future primary use of the airfield. Its facilities should serve as exercise objects. Next to him, the command support area of the air force with IT sectors 1 and 2 was to be stationed in Schortens. However, this was later revised. As with all larger locations, there is also the Schortens medical supply center.
In May 2016, the noise protection area around the military airfield established on December 22, 1976 was abolished.
| From | To | unit |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 1951 | 1952 | Royal Air Force |
| 1952 | 1961 | RAF Germany with 20th Squadron RAF (20 Sq), 112 Sq, 4 Sq, 93 Sq, 98 Sq, 118 Sq and 2 Sq |
| 1961 | Handover to the German Air Force | |
| 1961 | 1973 | Anti-aircraft missile battalion 26, 1964–1983 Air Force weapons school 10 |
| 1983 | 2005 | Fighter Bomber Squadron 38 "Friesland" |
| 26th September 2013 | End of flight operations | |
| 2015 | ... | Object protection regiment of the Air Force "Friesland", medical supply center |
Incidents
From 1952 to July 2018 there were 34 total write-offs of aircraft at Jever Airfield and in the vicinity. 11 people were killed.
See also
literature
- Bill Taylor: Royal Air Force Germany . Midland Publishing, Hinckley / England 2003, ISBN 1-85780-034-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Air base with city limits Jever / Schortens ( memento from July 9, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) at the geodata portal of the State Office for Geoinformation and Rural Development Lower Saxony
- ↑ Mike Sommer: Last day of flight at Upjever Air Base. www.luftwaffe.de, September 26, 2013, accessed December 9, 2013 .
- ↑ Last flight after 77 years - the lights went out in Upjever yesterday. In: Wilhelmshavener Zeitung, p. 13
- ↑ a b BT-Drs. 18/1532
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 309-311 , accessed on August 29, 2014
- ↑ BT-Drs. 11/5549
- ↑ Melanie Hanz: Military air traffic in Upjever over soon. www.nwzonline.de, September 30, 2013, accessed December 9, 2013 .
- ↑ Last day of flight at Upjever Air Base
- ↑ GAF Regiment ever more important for the Bundeswehr Reorientation Start for increase of station strength to 2050 service personnel
- ↑ 500 posts less Jeversches Wochenblatt from 3 March 2015
- ↑ Lower Saxony Ordinance on the Abolition of the Noise Protection Area for the Jever Military Airfield of May 13, 2016, in: Niedersächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt No. 5/2016 of May 20, 2016, p. 81, ISSN 0341-3497
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 309-311 , accessed on August 29, 2014
- ↑ List of accidents at Jever airfield , Aviation Safety Network WikiBase , accessed on July 26, 2018.