Welzow airfield
| Welzow airfield | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | EDCY |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 125 m (410 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 2.4 km south-west of Welzow, 22 km south-west of Cottbus, 66 km north-north-east of Dresden |
| train | Cottbus – Hoyerswerda |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1928 |
| operator | Flugplatzbetriebsgesellschaft Welzow mbH |
| surface | 525 ha |
| Runways | |
| 21/03 (current) | 2000 m × 30 m concrete |
| 22/04 (1990) | 2500 m × 80 m concrete |
| (1945) | 1100 m × 800 m grass |
The airfield Welzow is an airfield in Welzow in Brandenburg . Created in the 1920s, it served as a military airfield for the German Air Force from the 1930s . After the end of the Second World War , it was taken over by the Soviet armed forces and operated until they withdrew from Germany in the first half of the 1990s. After a partial renovation, it has been used civilly since August 1996.
history
First use
The first flying activities on the area between Welzow and Bahnsdorf began in the 1920s. From 1928 passenger flights were carried out from the site on Bahnsdorfer Weg. These were discontinued in 1930 and it was subsequently used as a glider flying site .
The time of National Socialism
From 1936 onwards the expansion into the future deployment port of the Air Force began, whereby it is noteworthy that most of the infrastructure was built as wooden structures. Three hangars with an asphalt apron were built on the southern edge. At that time, the size of the square was 1100 × 800 m, with the size of the turf used as a runway being given as 1000 × 300 m. The first intensive use as an operational airfield took place in 1939 by Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 , whose 1st group moved from their peace location Cottbus to Welzow at the end of August , in order to fly attacks on Polish troops from here at the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939. The airfield was then used as a place of work by pilot training schools and supplementary units. During the last days of the war, various Luftwaffe units retreating from the Red Army gathered in Welzow, such as a large part of Jagdgeschwader 6 , which was in Welzow from February 1945 and was relocated in April. On April 16, 1945, there was an air raid by units of the Soviet 2nd Air Army , which was subordinate to the 1st Ukrainian Front . Finally, the airfield was captured by the Red Army on April 19 (20?) 1945 and occupied from May to June by the 8th Guards Battlegroup Division equipped with IL-2 . The hangars had previously been blown up by retreating Wehrmacht units.
Under Soviet use
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After the end of the war , the remains of the hangar and the technical area were demolished; only the wooden buildings remained, were used by the Red Army until 1953 and then replaced by stone buildings. From 1949, planning began to expand the site as a front bomber base for the 16th Air Army . This began with a considerable expansion phase to three times the original area by clearing forest and meadow areas in a south-westerly direction. From 1951 to 1953, the expansion to a place airfield 2nd class instead: it was a paved runway 2,500 meters long, including Vorstartlinie created, built splitter boxes and anti-aircraft positions and a track connection to the railway station Neupetershain made. In 1958, a reserve runway running parallel to the runway, 2000 meters long and twelve meters wide, and a decentralization area in the northwest of the square were added. This decentralization area was located approx. 3 km outside the airfield and had 20 parking spaces, the taxiway there crossed the Grossenhain – Cottbus railway and the 169 trunk road . The airfield, now called Neu-Welzow , was given the code name DUBROWKA ( Russian Дубровка , German in the oaks ). In the further course various flying units of the Soviet Army were stationed, but the main user was the 11th Independent Reconnaissance Air Regiment (11th ORAP), which was moved from Krustpils / Latvian SSR to Welzow in June 1954 . His equipment consisted of reconnaissance versions of the types IL-28 , Jak-27 , Jak-28 and from 1986 from Su-24 .
In the 1960s, the question arose of giving up the square in favor of mining the abundant lignite deposits in the region by the GDR , which, however, would have had to withdraw its guarantees of existence to the Soviet side. The Soviet Union made its approval dependent on the construction of a complete airfield elsewhere as a replacement for Neu-Welzow airfield by the GDR, which therefore rejected these considerations at the end of the 1960s.
In 1969/70 the first ten closed aircraft covers were built in Neu-Welzow, to which more were added in 1974/75. In addition, a second 2500 m runway was built 50 m west of the first, which then also served as a parking area for larger aircraft at times. In 1983 the flight line was enlarged to 500 × 70 m in anticipation of the arrival of Su-24 reconnaissance vehicles.
In May 1991 the 11th ORAP briefly received some MiG-25RB from the inventory of the 931st ORAP from Werneuchen , which formed its 3rd squadron until the 11th ORAP withdrew. This began a month later with the repatriation of a first Su-24MP squadron from June 5th to 7th and ended on June 15, 1993 with the launch of the last Su-24MR in the direction of Marinowka . The last material shipment flights took place in early August 1993. Then the airfield was handed over to the German authorities and declared a conversion area.
literature
- Stefan Büttner: Red places . Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994. Fliegerhorste – Aerodorme – Military fallow areas. Ed .: Lutz Freundt. AeroLit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , pp. 170/171 .
- Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 1: Berlin & Brandenburg . VDM Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-52-8 , p. 328-333 .
- Lutz Freundt: Soviet Air Force Germany 1945–1990. Volume 2 . Airfields (part 2) and units. Self-published, Diepholz 1998, ISBN 3-00-002665-7 , p. 22/23 .
