Le Havre Airport

Aéroport du Havre-Octeville
Characteristics
ICAO code	LFOH
IATA code	LEH
Coordinates	49 ° 32 '2 "  N , 0 ° 5' 17"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 32 '2 "  N , 0 ° 5' 17"  E
Height above MSL	95 m (312  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	5 km northeast of Le Havre
Street	D 940
Basic data
opening	1939
operator	Edeis
Passengers	6,633 (2019)
Flight movements	195 (2019)
Start-and runway
05/23	2300 m × 40 m asphalt

The Le Havre Airport ( IATA code LEH , ICAO code LFOH ) ( fr. Aéroport du Havre-Octeville ) is a French airport at Le Havre in Normandy . It is located five kilometers northeast of the city not far from the channel coast .

Chalair Aviation connects it with Lyon up to three times a day on scheduled services .

history

Construction of the airport began in 1937 and when the war broke out in 1939 it was practically completed, which is why there was no official opening. Rather, it initially served the French Air Force as a military airfield . From mid-October 1939, the airfield became the base of Jagdgruppe GARC 2/561 with Spad 510 and Nieuport Delage NID-622 . In the following winter more modern Bloch 151/152 arrived and formed the Jagdgruppe GC III / 10, which intervened here in the fighting for France in the early summer of 1940 .

In the further course of the Second World War , the German Air Force used the Octeville airfield. During this time it was mainly a base for Messerschmitt Bf 109 associations.

First the Bf 109E of the III were here in August 1940 . Group of Jagdgeschwader 2 (III./JG 2), which flew their missions here as part of the Battle of Britain . Later, from October 1940 to May 1941, the supplementary squadron of Jagdgeschwader 2 (Erg.Sta./JG2) intervened in the air battle from here. In November 1940, the 4th Squadron of Reconnaissance Group 21 (4th (H) / 21) was also stationed in Octeville.

After the start of the German attack on the Soviet Union, the airfield became the home of the 4th Squadron of Fighter Pilot School 5 , which was here, also equipped with the Bf 109E, between early July 1941 and early April 1942. It was replaced by the last Luftwaffe unit permanently stationed here at the end of March 1942, the I. Group of Jagdgeschwader 2 (I./JG 2), which also used the Bf 109F here and left the base in mid-May 1942.

After the liberation of the area by the Allied troops, Airfield Y.30 , its Allied code name, was used from the beginning of November 1944 to mid-December 1945 as a base for transport aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

Web links

• lehavre.aeroport.fr Official site
• History about the beginnings of the airport

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Edeis reprend l'ensemble des actifs français de SNC-Lavalin , accessed on February 27, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Bulletin statistiquetrafic aérien commercial - Année 2019. In: ecologique-solidaire.gouv.fr. Ministère de la Transition écologique et solidaire, accessed on May 27, 2020 (French).