Gatow Airfield

Gatow ; Air Base Gatow Air Base ; RAF Gatow ; General Steinhoff Barracks
Characteristics
ICAO code	EDBG
IATA code	GWW
Coordinates	52 ° 28 '28 " N , 13 ° 8' 17" E Coordinates: 52 ° 28 '28 " N , 13 ° 8' 17" E
Height above MSL	49 m (161 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	23 km west of ; Berlin ( town hall )
Street	via B 2 and B 5
Basic data
opening	1935
closure	June 30, 1994
Start-and runway
08R / 26L	1842 m asphalt

The former Gatow airfield , today's General Steinhoff barracks , is located in the Berlin district of Spandau . Flight operations ceased on June 30, 1994. Today, part of the remaining area is home to the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr - Berlin-Gatow Airfield (formerly: Air Force Museum of the Bundeswehr ) as well as some Bundeswehr offices , including the Air Force Command . Until the regional reform in 2003, the former airfield was in the Gatow district . Since 2003 a large part of the area has belonged to the Kladow district .

history

Location of the active and former Berlin airports

prehistory

A student from the German University for Physical Education at the start of a glider flight in the Gatower Mountains

Before the Gatow military airfield was set up in 1935, the area of the Hellen Berge west of the Hohengatow mountain - also referred to as Gatow Mountains in some sources - was used as a glider airfield from around 1925 . Among other things, glider training courses from the German University for Physical Education took place there.

Gatow Air Base

In 1935 the military airfield was built as part of the armament of the Wehrmacht for the air force . Barracks and Gatow airfield were built in Gatow and Kladow on the western outskirts of Berlin near the Döberitz military training area . The Gatow Air Base was inaugurated by Adolf Hitler personally on November 2, 1935 . After its completion, the Air War School 2 and the Air War Academy were housed here. They were the most important training centers for the Air Force. They replaced the training center in Döberitz . Hitler was regularly flown from Gatow airfield to Berchtesgaden . Shortly before the end of the war, Hanna Reitsch flew on April 26, 1945 from Gatow Airfield with Colonel General Robert Ritter von Greim to the Führerbunker in Berlin, which was already completely enclosed. The pilot Beate Uhse fled from here to northern Germany.

Royal Air Force Gatow

On 26 April 1945 the occupied Red Army during the Battle of Berlin the airfield and used it from May to June for deployment of Il-2 - attack planes , Yak-9 - hunters and connecting aircraft type Po-2 . According to the agreements at the Yalta Conference , the Soviet troops handed it over to the Royal Air Force Unit Berlin on July 2, 1945 , from which on August 1, 1945, the Royal Air Force Station Gatow , RAF Gatow for short , became. During this time, the square was also used by the delegations of the victorious powers traveling to the Potsdam Conference . Through an exchange of territory agreed before the handover , the Soviet troops received large parts of Staaken including the airfield there . In return, the British received the parts of the Gatow airfield located on Groß Glienicker area and the "Seeburger Zipfel". Nevertheless, the Soviet armed forces used Gatow as an emergency landing site for some time afterwards. The landing of a Yak-9 on October 19, 1945 and an Il-2 at the beginning of 1946 are verifiable. The accidental landing of a MiG-15 on October 24, 1952, the pilot of which, when he became aware of his mistake, was spectacular . his plane accelerated again and was able to take off successfully despite the British attempt to block the runway with vehicles. Shortly after the war, the remaining buildings of the Air War Academy east of Kladower Damm were used as a hospital and were later converted.

During the Berlin blockade , Gatow Airport played an important role in supplying West Berlin . The first transport aircraft of the Berlin Airlift landed here on June 28, 1948 . After a short time, the throughput volume was 1,000 tons per day.

In the meantime it was also used as a civil airport. In 1946, the BEA took up civil air traffic to West Germany . After almost all West Berlin air traffic had been relocated to Tempelhof Airport in 1950 , the only non-military use that remained was occasional state visits by members of the royal family , especially Queen Elizabeth II.

The Royal Air Force Germany stationed from 1958 to 1994 as part of the RAF Gatow Station Flights two aircraft of type Chipmunk T.10 , which were used in the Berlin control zone and air corridors for aerial reconnaissance. The British Army Air Corps stationed the 7th Flight from 1970 with initially three helicopters of the type Westland Bell Sioux AH.1, which were replaced by Gazelle AH.1 from 1975 . The 7th Flight was repositioned in Brunei with the 1994 withdrawal .

Numerous renovations took place under British sovereignty, such as new settlements consisting of apartment buildings and terraced houses to accommodate the soldiers. Furthermore, a golf course and in 1977 a shooting range were created.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lt. General Lucius D. Clay at the airfield
Main entrance, August 1983
Original DHC-1 Chipmunk, currently in the MHM Gatow
Coat of arms of the Royal Air Force Gatow

General Steinhoff Barracks

After almost 50 years, the Allies left Berlin on June 18, 1994 . Flight operations ceased on June 30, 1994. On September 7, 1994, the Bundeswehr took over the airfield. The takeover took place at the time by the 3rd Air Force Division . The commanding officer at the time was Major General Jürgen Höche , and the head of press and public relations was Lieutenant Colonel Joachim Weiß. Today the area is divided into the General Steinhoff barracks named after Johannes Steinhoff with the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr and other branches of the armed forces. Only a small part of the site, the old accommodation, some hangars of the museum and the tower belong to the barracks . Part of the former runways has been preserved. The old railways are used as exhibition space for historical aircraft; two 830-meter-long runways are put into operation for the annual airport festival.

Civil use

Large parts of the former airfield are now used for civilian purposes. The Habichtswald settlement laid out for the airfield was not used by the British Army and rented out as federal property; it has since been sold to private owners. With the end of flight operations, the country town of Gatow was developed in Kladow. Today there are row houses and single houses, supermarkets and schools in the area of the runways. Most of the residential buildings built by the British on Kladower Damm have been removed from the barracks and are now available to the free housing market. This also applies to some older houses and new buildings as well as a recently converted barracks building. The golf course was expanded in 1999 to include the Senate Reserve for Coal and is now home to the Berlin Gatows Golf Club . A redesign into a public park is planned for the shooting range on Potsdamer Chaussee.

Airfield building

The original buildings of Gatows airfield are listed as monuments with the object number (09085643 ), which the Reichsakademie has as object number (09085644 ) protected.

Terminal and tower, in front the capital letters 'GATOW'
Airfield fire department building
Hangar 1 - Museum (restoration)
Hangar 3 - Museum (exhibition)
Hangar 4 - barracks (radio operator)
Hangar 5 - Museum (warehouse)
Hangar 6 - Museum (warehouse)
Hangar 7 - Museum (exhibition)
Hangar 8 - Museum (depot)
Hangar 9 and 10 (empty)
General Steinhoff Barracks entrance building
Former Luftwaffe War School 2, currently the headquarters of the Luftwaffe Command

Incidents

On April 5, 1948, a collided Vickers Viking 1B of the British European Airways (BEA) with the air vehicle registration G-AIVP during the landing approach with a Soviet fighter aircraft of type Yakovlev Yak-3 and crashed out of control around three kilometers from the airfield Gatow away from. The Soviet pilot had illegal aerobatics there . All 15 people in the two machines were killed.

On October 10, 1948, an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW305) rolled over the end of the runway when landing at Berlin-Gatow airfield. In order to prevent further rolling, the landing gear was retracted so that it landed on its stomach . This damaged the aircraft beyond repair. All occupants - crew members and passengers - survived.

On December 2, 1948, an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW246) was landed at the Berlin-Gatow airfield at too high a speed. To prevent the end of the runway from rolling over, the commander initiated a ringelpiez , during which the landing gear collapsed. All occupants survived the accident. The machine was damaged beyond repair.

On December 14, 1948, the pilots of an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW300) lost control of the aircraft when it took off from Berlin-Gatow airfield, whereupon the landing gear collapsed. All inmates survived. The machine was damaged beyond repair.

Also on December 14, 1948, a very similar accident occurred at the Berlin-Gatow airfield. The pilots of an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW238) lost directional control of the machine during take-off. It came off the runway, fell onto the aircraft's nose in soft ground and was destroyed. All inmates survived.

On March 15, 1949, an Avro York I of the British Skyways (G-AHFI) lost control on its approach to Gatow airfield. The machine tipped over the left wing and fell to the ground. All three crew members were killed.

On August 24, 1952, engine no. 1 had to be switched off on an Avro York C.1 of Eagle Aviation (G-AGNZ) after take-off from Gatow airfield. During the return to the take-off airfield, however, a fire quickly spread in the engine, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in a field near Potsdam. One of the three crew members of the cargo flight was killed.

Web links

Commons : Gatow air field - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Berlin distance measuring point: According to Lemma Berlin , the point of the geographical location of Berlin corresponds to the location of the Berlin City Hall (May 28, 2012)

^ Jürgen Willisch: Airfield Berlin-Gatow: The story. In: Daedalus - Historical Air Force Berlin. Retrieved May 21, 2017 .

↑ Major General RJS Corbett, CB (Ed.): Berlin and the British Ally . Berlin (memories of the last British city commandant of Berlin).

^ Stefan Büttner: Red places . Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994. Air bases – aerodromes – military fallow areas. Ed .: Lutz Freundt. AeroLit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , pp. 108 .

↑ Gatow Golf Club history. Retrieved July 10, 2019 .

↑ Kladower Forum: 35th Village History Walk: On the Trail of the Occupation | Kladower Forum. Retrieved July 10, 2019 .

↑ Gatow: An era is coming to an end. In: Berliner Zeitung . March 23, 1994.

^ The Berlin-Gatow airfield: A museum in a historical location. Retrieved April 29, 2014.

↑ The Gatow shooting range is to become a park. In: Der Tagesspiegel . February 6, 2015.

↑ Accident report Viking 1B G-AIVP. Aviation Safety Network ( English ), accessed on 25 November 2017th

↑ accident report Avro York MW305. Aviation Safety Network, accessed February 6, 2020.

↑ James J. Halley: Broken Wings. Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Air-Britain (Historians), Tunbridge Wells, 1999, ISBN 0-85130-290-4 , p. 80.

↑ accident report Avro York MW246. Aviation Safety Network, accessed February 6, 2020.

↑ James J. Halley: Broken Wings. Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Air-Britain (Historians), Tunbridge Wells, 1999, ISBN 0-85130-290-4 , p. 82.

↑ accident report Avro York MW300. Aviation Safety Network, accessed February 6, 2020.

↑ James J. Halley: Broken Wings. Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Air-Britain (Historians), Tunbridge Wells, 1999, ISBN 0-85130-290-4 , p. 83.

↑ accident report Avro York FW238. Aviation Safety Network, accessed February 6, 2020.