Brandenburg-Briest airfield
| Brandenburg-Briest airfield | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code |
|
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 31 m (102 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 65 km west of Berlin |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1914 |
| closure | 2009 |
| Start-and runway | |
| 07/25 | 1499 m × 30 m concrete |
The special airfield Brandenburg-Briest was about 65 km west of the city center of Berlin and was partly in the Görden district of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel and in today's Briest district of the city of Havelsee . It was located near the Havel , had a 1499 m long concrete runway and was approved for a maximum take-off weight of 14,000 kg and only for visual approaches (VFR).
history
The first to settle on the site was the Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke GmbH , which started producing Etrich Tauben in May 1914 , but was bought by Camillo Castiglioni on July 1st and manufactured military aircraft as Hansa-Brandenburg Flugzeugwerke AG during the First World War . The airfield was opened as the Briest air base on June 29, 1914, and the first aircraft landed one day later. In 1916 a flying school started its work. Aircraft production and pilot training ended with the occupation by insurgent sailors during the November Revolution . From March 1919, the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission ordered the dismantling of the infrastructure; further use was limited to agriculture.
It was not until 1929 that a further, disguised expansion took place, circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty . In 1936, the expansion to a school air base of the Air Force was tackled. The neighboring Arado aircraft works had an assembly company on the square. Training began in April 1939 by the Luftwaffe's flight instructor school and continued until shortly before the end of the war . In July 1942, the I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 50 was formed here, which was equipped with the new four-engine Heinkel He 177 . In addition, Brandenburg-Briest was occupied by several fighter pilot units, among other things, the elite association JV 44 was formed here from January 1945 and the place, which was part of the Reich defense, was used to protect Berlin. It also served as an assembly and deployment base for the newly developed Me 262 jet fighter . On April 10, 1945, the airfield was by 138 B-17 - bombers of the US 8th Air Force attack that left severe damage. On April 29, the Red Army occupied the area.
After the war, most of the existing buildings were demolished and an internment camp of the NKVD was operated on the site from 1945 to 1948 . From 1949 the restored airfield served as a base for the Group of Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD). Were stationed to 1953 and to 1956 Jagdflieger- attack aircraft units .
From October 1956 Brandenburg-Briest was used by the newly founded NVA . The helicopter training squadron HAS-35 (later helicopter training squadron (HAG) 35) and the HG-34 (later transport helicopter squadron 34 (THG-34) "Werner Seelenbinder") with Mil Mi-8 were stationed there, briefly also the helicopter squadron 64 (former 4th Squadron of the HG-34, later KHG-67 ) with Mil Mi-8TB and Mil Mi-24 . It was moved to Cottbus at the end of 1982 .
After the dissolution of the NVA, the airfield was temporarily by parts of the air transport squadron 65 of the Air Force continue to be used.
After being rededicated for civil aviation, the EDUB special airfield remained in operation until 2009.
The lease agreement between Flugplatz Brandenburg-Briest Verwaltungs GmbH as the user of the special airfield and the property owner, the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks , expired at the end of July 2009. The landowner applied for the aviation law permit for the special landing site to be withdrawn ( deedication ) and the associated loss of the aeronautical permit for the 400 hectare area in order to be able to set up a solar energy producer. In 2011, the Brandenburg-Briest solar park on the former airfield was connected to the German power grid.
literature
- GBSL's collective of authors: Historic aviation sites in and around Berlin . MediaScript, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-9814822-4-9 .
- Thomas Bussmann: Reinforced concrete, grass and railway lights - the airfields used by the military in the GDR . MediaScript, Cottbus, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814822-0-1 .
- Stefan Büttner: Red places: Russian military airfields in Germany 1945-1994 . Aerolit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 .
- Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 1. Berlin & Brandenburg . VDM , Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-52-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 76-88 , accessed on May 11 of 2019.