Cologne-Ostheim Airport
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Cologne-Ostheim airfield Cologne-Merheim airfield Ostheim air base |
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| Characteristics | |||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 52 m (171 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 6 km east of Cologne (center) | ||
| Street | (today's  )
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| Basic data | |||
| opening | around 1911 | ||
| closure | April 1945 | ||
| operator | Luftwaffe (last) | ||
The airport Cologne-Ostheim was the second airport of Cologne in today's North Rhine-Westphalia , to Cologne Butzweilerhof. The airfield was used as a military airfield in the period before and during the Second World War . Flight operations were not resumed after the war.
history
The airfield was built around 1911 south of Olpener Strasse. After the airfield was handed over to the military in 1912, the airfield in Ostheim took off.
After the end of the First World War Ostheim was occupied by British troops. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had various flight squadrons stationed here for some time from 1918. Among other things, they carried out airmail flights.
In 1934 the Reich Aviation Ministry ordered the construction of a new air base in the area of Ostheim / Merheim on the right bank of the Rhine; The planning was done in strict secrecy, because at that time the area on the right bank of the Rhine was still 50 km wide demilitarized and the future air force had not yet been exposed.
Construction began on April 27, 1936 and Walter Horten began building his flying wing gliders here while the construction was still in progress. With the simultaneous construction of the Düsseldorf-Frankfurt motorway (today: BAB 3), Ostheim was divided up in 1936/37. East of the autobahn was now the air base, west of it the village of Ostheim. The road to Merheim, which was now called "Ostmerheimer Strasse", was named after the aviation pioneer Bruno Werntgen. On the other side of the autobahn it remained at "Ostmerheimer Straße".
The Luftwaffe took over the property on June 8, 1937, the first user was the I. Group of Jagdgeschwader 234 (I./JG 234), which was equipped with Bf 109 and He 51 . In the same year the Horten brothers made the successful maiden flight of their Horten HV . At the beginning of 1939 the last He 51 were replaced by Bf 109 E1 / E3. The I. and II./ JG 234 were renamed I. and II./ Jagdgeschwader 26 (JG 26) " Schlageter " in May 1939 and a few months later the I./JG 26 was withdrawn from Cologne.
In January 1940 cargo sailors were stationed in Ostheim in preparation for the paratrooper attack on the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael . Hermann Göring inspected the preparations at the end of February and on May 10, 1940 the Wehrmacht's western campaign began, including the attack on Eben-Emael. In response, the RAF flew a first air raid on Cologne, which also hit Ostheim Air Base.
In the following years flight operations were reduced. Users in this were test group 210 (Erpr.Gr 210) and III. Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (III./NJG 1) with their Bf 109 and Bf 110 .
In May 1944 Ostheim became the base of the first 3 squadrons of Night Battle Group 2 (NSGr 2), which was equipped with around 80 Ju87 D-3 and D-5 . In the last months of 1944, the airfield was increasingly the target of Allied air raids. As a result of the approaching western front, Ostheim became an operational base for day interceptors .
Around 60 Fw 190 F-8s were brought together in Ostheim for the " Bodenplatte company " . The operation began on New Year's Day 1945 under the command of Colonel Alfred Druschel , who was killed in the process. The last attack on Ostheim by the United States Army Air Forces occurred in late January.
On April 13, 1945, the Ostheim airfield was occupied by the Americans. Since the air base was only about 10 kilometers from Wahn Airport, the Allies saw no need for maintenance - the airport facilities were therefore torn down. Most of the barracks have been preserved and are now used as residential buildings, commercial buildings and the Merheim hospital. The Large plantation was from 1944 a site of heavy anti-aircraft batteries of air defense in the Cologne area.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Page about Ostheim Air Base with a sketch of the area ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Gebhard Aders : The Ostheim Air Base in the Yearbook for History and Regional Studies Volume 8 , Geschichts- und Heimatverein Rechtsrheinisches Köln eV (Ed.), Self-published 1982, p. 127ff.
- ^ Geschichts- und Heimatverein Rechtsrheinisches Köln eV: Yearbook for History and Regional Studies Volume 21 , self-published, Cologne, 1995, p. 106.
