Roth Airfield
| Army Air Base Roth | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | ETHR |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 387 m (1270 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 3 km south of Roth |
| Street | federal private road to federal road 2 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1938 |
| closure | 2014 (military flight operations) |
| Start-and runway | |
| 09/27 | 535 m × 30 m asphalt |
Former Army Airfield Roth with the Otto Lilienthal - Barracks is a property of the Bundeswehr in Middle Franconia and lies about 30 km south of Nuremberg . The city of Heideck is the first barracks sponsorship community in Germany.
Roth airfield (formerly ETHR) is a special airfield located within the Otto-Lilienthal barracks. Landings of aircraft are only possible with PPR through the barracks commandant's office. Military flight operations ceased in 2014.
General aviation does not take place at this airport. Exceptions are private flights by the Bundeswehrflugsportgruppe Otto Lilienthal eV and the private Segel-Flieger-Club Roth e. V. on weekends.
Geographical location
The airfield is about four kilometers south of the historic center of Roth between the districts of Kiliansdorf , Ober- and Untersteinbach and Eckersmühlen at an altitude of 386 m above sea level. NN .
The airfield with the barracks can be reached via two federally owned private roads that branch off from the extension of State Road 2409 over Federal Road 2 . On the southern of the two streets, called Kilianssorf-Siedlung , there are also numerous houses for soldiers and their families.
history
From construction to the end of World War II
The Roth airfield and the barracks have their roots in the 1930s, when there was a desire for a military airfield in Roth. In 1935 the planning of the military airfield began under the direction of the Reich Aviation Ministry , against the resistance of the local farmers. The property owners filed a complaint with the Reichsnährstand against the building project. At the beginning of 1936, the complaint was rejected by Luftkreiskommando 5 in Munich and construction management for the Roth-Kiliansdorf aviator training site was set up in a farmhouse in Kiliansdorf. In the spring of 1937 construction began, which at that time was already planned as a barracks. First, the aircraft hangars, accommodation / guard buildings and the staff building with the officers' mess were built. The first unit in Roth was the Kiliansdorf pilot school , which was relocated from Erding . In May 1938 flight operations were started by the pilot school at Roth airfield. The air base command was designated 9 / XIII and was subordinate to the airport area command 1 / XIII in Fürth.
The following table shows a list of all active flying units (excluding school and supplementary units) of the Air Force that were stationed here between 1939 and 1945.
| From | To | unit | equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 1939 | October 1939 | Weather investigation relay 51 | |
| August 1939 | February 1940 | II./KG 53 (II. Group of Kampfgeschwader 53) | Heinkel He 111 |
| February 1940 | May 1940 | I./KG 53 | Heinkel He 111 |
| May 1940 | May 1940 | Bar / KG 53 | Heinkel He 111 |
| February 1945 | February 1945 | Parts of I./KG 66 | Junkers Ju 88 , Junkers Ju 188 |
From April 8, 1945 on, Roth Air Base was approached and bombed several times by 91 Consolidated B-24 bombers of the 20th Combat Wings of the 2nd Air Force Division, dropping more than 210 tons of bombs. The attack was preceded by extensive reconnaissance and classification of the Americans. Except for a few aircraft shelters, the air base was destroyed. The very next day, a so-called softening of the airfield was carried out with four-plow tractors in order to make it unusable for the advancing US troops. On April 20, 1945, the air base was captured by US troops.
post war period
From 1946 the US Army set up an office for the defusing of bombs and ammunition from the war on the grounds of Roth airfield. Thousands of tons of bombs and ammunition were stored and defused there. The ammunition was first transported to the site by truck and later by train via a specially laid siding.
The Flieger-Club Roth received approval in 1954 to use the airfield, which is still valid today. On February 8, 1956, the airfield was handed over to German authorities by the Americans, and in August 1956, the first 350 recruits of Air Force Training Regiment 3 moved into the barracks. Until 1961 only the Rother sports pilots used the place for flying purposes. In September 1961, the Heeresflugplatz air base was moved there with the relocation of Heeresfliegerstaffel 4 with Alouette II helicopters and Dornier Do 27 fixed- wing aircraft . In 1962 a flight control, weather advice and airfield fire brigade were set up and the new tower building was put into operation.
In November 1964 the barracks were renamed “Otto-Lilienthal-Kaserne”, a German pioneer in aircraft development.
Since May 30, 1974, the Bavarian Police Helicopter Squadron has been housed with the branch for Northern Bavaria at the Army Airfield, initially with a Bölkow Bo 105 and a staff of only four officers, but now with the Eurocopter EC 135 in 24-hour shift work and around 30 officers including maintenance and administration.
In 2011 new maintenance hangars and other buildings were built for the planned stationing of the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter . For this reason, two identical maintenance halls, Maintenance Buildings I and II, were built there for 16 helicopters each. Both halls with their surrounding ancillary rooms have a floor space of 151 m × 90 m and a height of almost 16 m.
As part of the realignment of the Bundeswehr , it was announced in October 2011 that the helicopter regiment would be dissolved in 2014. All Tiger helicopters destined for the Bundeswehr are stationed with the 36th Combat Helicopter Regiment in Fritzlar , Hesse .
The 2nd Battalion of the Air Force Training Regiment was disbanded at the end of 2012. The Air Force Training Regiment itself and Army Aviation Squadron 269 were dissolved with effect from March 31, 2013. The combat helicopter regiment 26 “Franconia” held an open day for the last time on Sunday, July 28, 2013, and their relatives were transferred to other locations. The regiment was formally dissolved with effect from July 1, 2014.
present
After the dissolution of the Roth air force training regiment, the 7th company of the air force training battalion, which is the largest unit at the site, was set up on January 1, 2013 .
The 9th / Feldjägerregiment 3 and the medical supply center Roth are currently stationed in Roth.
The Otto-Lilienthal-Kaserne Roth was the official branch of the central asylum facility ZAE Zirndorf . In autumn 2014 , the government of Middle Franconia rented five of the barracks buildings. Since then, up to 500 asylum seekers have been regularly accommodated and cared for there. In autumn 2015, another 850 people were accommodated in three additional lightweight construction halls. The last asylum seekers left the barracks at the end of 2019.
During an information visit by then Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière in 2012, he announced that by 2018, after some necessary modifications, the Air Force officers' school would be moving from Fürstenfeldbruck to Roth. As a result, 500 posts were retained. In addition, there would be a good 800 to 900 course participants. It was later announced that the officers' school could only move in 2019 due to necessary construction work. The construction of the officers' school should initially cost 114 million euros. It is now assumed that the company will move in 2023 and construction costs of around 200 million euros.
As part of the training of officers, basic training in gliding was introduced in 2019. Since the Bundeswehr does not have the appropriate personnel and equipment for this, aircraft of the type ASK-21 along with experienced flight instructors were "borrowed" from surrounding clubs. The basic equipment on the ground equipment comes largely from the gliding school in Oerlinghausen .
Stationed units and associations
- Air Force Training Regiment (until 2007)
- Army Aviation Squadron 269 (until 2013)
- Parts anti-aircraft missile group 23 (until 2013)
- Combat Helicopter Regiment 26 (until 2014)
- Police helicopter squadron Bavaria (since 1974)
- Sanitary supply center Roth (since 2011)
- 9th / Feldjägerregiment 3 (since 2013)
- 7th / Air Force Training Battalion (since 2013)
- 8th / Air Force Training Battalion (since July 2018)
swell
literature
- Harald G Dill, Karlheinz Hetz: Air war from Aschaffenburg to Zwiesel: Military-technical feature on the local history of Northern Bavaria, Verlag Heinz Späthling
See also
Web links
- Army airfield 50 years old 2011
- Website of the former HFlgRgt 26
- Website of the Bundeswehr Aviation Group
- Basic sailing course for officer candidates
- Aerokurier 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 578-579 , accessed on March 8, 2020th
- ↑ → Bibliography: Dill, Hetz
- ↑ 10,000 visitors at the open house at Roth Army Airfield. In: Bundeswehr.de , August 1, 2013, accessed August 21, 2013
- ^ Tents for refugees set up in Rother Kaserne ( memento from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), www.br.de, February 23, 2015
- ^ Accommodation for asylum seekers in the Otto-Lilienthal-Kaserne ( Memento from October 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), www.br.de (offline)
- ↑ Refugee crisis: “It can't go on like this” , Bayernkurier , October 22, 2015
- ↑ Gerhard Eisenkolb: Air Force remains until 2019. In: sueddeutsche.de , June 12, 2012, accessed on March 25, 2013.
- ↑ Marco Seliger: Hard landing. www.faz.net, August 8, 2014, accessed August 8, 2014
- ↑ From Bruck to Roth in Franconia: Moving the officers' school will be expensive. Münchner Merkur , February 4, 2016, accessed on June 11, 2018 .
- ↑ Air Force stays three years longer.
- ↑ Germersheim: Air Force Training Battalion has a new company in Roth . In: Pfalz-Express . July 16, 2018 ( pfalz-express.de [accessed July 18, 2018]).
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