Cottbus / Neuhausen airfield
| Cottbus / Neuhausen airfield | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | EDAP | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 85 m (279 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 10 km southeast of Cottbus | ||
| train | Cottbus-Görlitz railway line | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1938 | ||
| operator | Flugplatzgesellschaft Cottbus / Neuhausen mbH | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 11/29 | 1080 m × 40 m grass | ||
The airfield Neuhausen is a German airfield in Neuhausen ten kilometers south-east of Cottbus . It is a former airfield of the Luftwaffe and was used as a training place by the GST of the GDR after the Second World War .
history
The area of the field was acquired by the city of Cottbus in 1935 as a replacement for the Cottbus-Nord airfield that had been taken over by the Luftwaffe in 1933 and had been used for civilian purposes until then . In 1936, planning began for a use as a commercial airfield. This did not happen, however, because from 1938/39 the Luftwaffe also took over this area. They built two small aircraft hangars on the northwestern edge - one of them transportable - as well as some workshops and accommodation barracks. At that time, the longest runway running from northwest to southeast of the relatively oval square was 1280 meters. Neuhausen was used by the pilot school A / B 3 Guben and the school of the flight candidate regiment 82 Cottbus. The supplementary group of JG 52 is said to have been in place for a short time. With the settlement of Focke-Wulf GmbH at the Cottbus airfield, Neuhausen was included in their flight operations from around 1944. In the eastern part and the recent adjustment and zeroing in on-board weapons transferred by rail to Neuhausen Fw-190 - and Ta-152 - fighter planes . On January 16, 1945, around noon, US fighters of the Mustang and Lightning types attacked the field several times at low altitude , destroying a Fw 190 and 14 Ta 152Hs that could not be stored in the protective splinter boxes due to their large wingspan .
Shortly before the end of the war, on January 23, 1945, there was a final occupancy by the staff and the II. Group of JG 4 equipped with Fw 190A-8 . On February 15, the last air force units left the airfield, which was captured by the Red Army on April 20, 1945 and already two days later until May was put into operation as a front-line airfield by various fighter units of the Soviet air force . In 1947/48 the few existing buildings were dismantled or blown up.
In 1952, the newly founded GST took over the area and began building a glider airfield . A new hangar and some barracks were built in 1953/54. In the summer of 1956 the first GST powered flight course was held. Iris Wittig was in charge of training and the airfield at that time . At the same time, under Soviet guidance, the first GDR parachutists received basic training with a Li-2 . In 1959/60 the NVA planned the expansion into a military airfield “II. Class “with a concrete 2000-meter runway in the south-west / north-east direction. The project was not implemented. From 1962 to 1964 the aircraft hangar, which is still in use today, was built with an attached tower and workshop. In the following years Neuhausen developed into a flight and parachute training center of the GST. The GDR selection with Erwin Bläske , which won the aerobatic world championship in 1968, also trained on the field. In the 1980s, the KHG-3 stationed in Cottbus occasionally used the site as an alternate airfield.
After the political change and the subsequent dissolution of the GST, the area was returned to the city of Cottbus in 1991 and the Flugplatzgesellschaft Cottbus-Neuhausen mbH was founded, which still operates the airfield today.
literature
- 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 .
- Günter Schmitt: Neuhausen training center with tradition . In: Wolfgang Sellenthin (Ed.): Fliegerkalender der DDR 1974 . Military Publishing House of the GDR , Berlin 1973, p. 128-140 .
- 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
- ^ Reinhold Thiel: Focke-Wulf aircraft construction. H. M. Hauschild, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89757-489-2 , p. 235.
- ↑ Dieter Kleemann: Iris Wittig / Köhler, only female fighter pilot in the NVA . Facts and experiences - written down by members of the NVA aviation forces. In: Fliegergeschichten. From takeoff to landing . MediaScript, Strausberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814822-3-2 , pp. 30/31 .
- ↑ Dieter Henze: Reviews. In: Fliegerrevue No. 6/1972, pp. 235/236
