Damgarten airfield

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Damgarten airfield
Damgarten (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
Damgarten
Damgarten
Characteristics
Coordinates

54 ° 15 '56 "  N , 12 ° 25' 58"  E Coordinates: 54 ° 15 '56 "  N , 12 ° 25' 58"  E

Height above MSL 6 m (20  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 28 km northeast of Rostock
Basic data
opening 1936
closure 1994
operator Technik Verein Pütnitz e. V.
Runways
07/25 1325 m × 80 m concrete
07/25 2600 m × 42 m concrete

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The airfield Damgarten (formerly Aerodrome Pütnitz ) is a former military airfield in the Vorpommern-Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . It was created in the 1930s by the Wehrmacht Air Force and operated by them until the end of World War II . It was then taken over by the Soviet Air Force , which also subjected it to military use by units of the 16th Air Army until they withdrew from reunified Germany in 1994 .

history

Use by the Air Force

Coat of arms of the Pütnitz pilot school on a building at the airfield

Work on a combined land and Seefliegerhorst began in 1935 on a portion of the eastern shore of Ribnitzer lake located Good Pütnitz . Among other things, a concrete runway with a length of 1325 meters and a width of 80 meters and several maintenance halls in the west and north-west areas were built. In the western part was the sea flight station, which had five large halls, a shipyard hall and two "drainage tracks" for seaplanes, which flowed directly into the bay. The pre-command of the air base command (See) Pütnitz , set up as a future user in Warnemünde, relocated to the site on April 1, 1936, and at the same time the pilot school (See) moved from Travemünde-Priwall to Pütnitz. School operations began under the name of the Flugzeugführererschule (See) Pütnitz , but the unit name was later changed several times. In addition, other units, such as the Blindflugschule 4 , parts of the Fliegeraufzugungsgruppe (sea) and the 9th Sea Emergency Squadron, were at least temporarily stationed in Pütnitz. Parts of the airfield were used for their entry operations by the Bachmann works on the opposite side of the Saaler Bodden , which acted as a repair shop for Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke . The aircraft were transported between the plant and the airfield via the bay. In 1939, Bachmann-Werke also leased two hangars on the air base in order to convert He-59 reconnaissance aircraft into sea rescue aircraft. From 1941, forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners were increasingly used on the square and in the repair shop.

In the last days of the war, Pütnitz briefly became a front-line airfield. On April 28, 1945, the III. Group of the Udet Jagdgeschwader went there and flew a few missions on the following two days before they moved west. At the beginning of May, the 2nd group of the same unit was the last unit to leave the site, so that the Soviet troops could take the Pütnitz air base on May 2nd without a fight.

Use by the Soviet Air Force

Ruin of the control tower, 2018

After the end of the war, there was initially no flying activity on the field. The Soviet occupation forces dismantled in 1948 instead, as part of the reparations , the two lying in the northwest big hangars and hangar of Seeflugstation and transported them to the Soviet Union. In the same year, the so-called "Bodden shipyard" was built on the site of the sea station using the premises, but it only existed until 1951, since the Soviet administration decided to restore the site to its original purpose using the existing infrastructure. The yard was cleared and the first expansion phase, which lasted until 1952, began, which essentially comprised the construction of a second, 2250-meter-long runway with new taxiways and some aircraft splitter boxes. Then began the stationing of various units, mainly fighter regiments. After the two cities of Ribnitz and Damgarten were merged in 1950, the official name of the airfield was changed from Pütnitz to Damgarten.

Interior view of a hall of the former sea flying station in today's condition

A second phase of expansion and renovation began in the 1960s. From March to September 1961 the runway was extended to 2500 meters. From 1968 to 1970, as a reaction to the experiences of the Six Day War, the construction of closed aircraft covers and an ammunition bunker was carried out on all airfields of the 16th Air Army . Pütnitz was increasingly used as a starting point for air rifle exercises that took place over the Baltic Sea and in which troops from other Warsaw contracting states also took part. In the meantime, Polish, Hungarian and NVA fighter planes were also lying on the airfield . For this reason, so-called target display chains were also stationed. A final runway extension to 2600 meters was decided in the 1970s, as was the construction of another granite- type ammunition store . From the 1980s, the old runway, which dates back to the 1930s, was only used as a flight line for the stationed target actors until 1991 . A thorough renovation of the square planned for the beginning of the 1990s was prevented by the political events. After the last aircraft left Pütnitz for Russia in June 1994, the airfield was declared a conversion area by the German authorities and then closed.

The following Soviet units were stationed in Damgarten (without intermediate occupancies):

From To unit equipment Remarks
May 1945 June 1945 215th Fighter Division (IAD, headquarters) k. A.
1951 1953 263rd Fighter Division, Staff
43rd and 899th Fighter Regiment (IAP)
MiG-15
1953 1993 16th Guard Fighter Aviation Division
(16th Gw IAD, staff)
An-2 , An-14 , Wed-9
August 1953 September 1953 20th Guards Fighter Regiment MiG-15
1953 1956 19th Guards Fighter Regiment MiG-15
1954 1994 773rd Fighter Regiment MiG-15, MiG-17 , Jak-28 ,
later MiG-21 , MiG-23 and MiG-29
Part of 16 Gw IAD,
on 11 April 1994, after Andreapol laid,
dissolved in May 1994
1977 1990 65th Independent
Tractor Squadron (65th OBAE)
IL-28
later MiG-23, Su-25 and L-39
Use as a
target presentation chain
1982 1986 74th Independent tow pilot squadron IL-28 Use as a
target presentation chain

Todays use

The preserved halls of the sea flying station on the Ribnitzer See have housed the Pütnitz Technology Museum since 2003 . The operational areas to the east are no longer used.

Incidents

  • On May 29, 1958, two MiG-17s of the 773rd Fighter Regiment forced a Belgian RF-84F Thunderflash , which had penetrated the airspace of the GDR after pilot Martin Paulus lost his orientation, to land on Damgarten airfield. Lieutenant Paulus was released after two weeks at the request of the Belgian government. The aircraft with the registration number H8 N from the fleet of the 42nd reconnaissance squadron was then dismantled by members of JG-1 of the NVA and transported back to Belgium by land at the end of June.
  • On August 31, 1970, MiG-21s of the 773rd IAP forced a Cessna 182 (registration number: D-ELVW ), which had flown over the German-German border near Lübeck , to land in Damgarten.

literature

  • Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them . Volume 5 - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. VDM , Zweibrücken 2006, ISBN 978-3-86619-011-5 , p. 281-314 .
  • Stefan Büttner: Red places. Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994. Air bases – aerodromes – military fallow areas . AeroLit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , pp. 72-77 .
  • Edwin Sternkiker: The Pütnitz airport under the swastika and Soviet star 1935–1994 . Redieck & Schade, Rostock 2014, ISBN 978-3-942673-49-5 .

Web links

Commons : Damgarten Airfield  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Edwin Sternkiker: biplane and jet bombers over Ribnitz. The Walther Bachmann Aircraft Works 1934–1945. Redieck & Schade, Rostock 2010, ISBN 978-3-942673-35-8 , p. 48
  2. Bernd Kienle: The last red jets in Germany . In: Fliegerrevue . No. 06/2019 , ISSN  0941-889X , p. 47 .
  3. ^ Gerhard Stieber: The aviation engineering service of the GDR military aviation . Media Script, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-9814822-5-6 , pp. 148/149 .