Gaël
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Gaël Gwazel |
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| region | Brittany | |
| Department | Ille-et-Vilaine | |
| Arrondissement | Rennes | |
| Canton | Montauban-de-Bretagne | |
| Community association | Saint-Méen Montauban | |
| Coordinates | 48 ° 8 ′ N , 2 ° 13 ′ W | |
| height | 51-131 m | |
| surface | 52.10 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,634 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 31 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 35290 | |
| INSEE code | 35117 | |
_Mairie.jpg) Mairie Gaël |
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Gaël ( Breton : Gwazel ) is a municipality with 1634 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in France in Ille-et-Vilaine in the region of Brittany . It is located southwest of Rennes , on the banks of the River Meu . It covers an area of 52.10 km² and is located between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron .
history
Point-Clos Airfield
A few kilometers south-southeast of Gaël, on today's D773, there was a small military airfield , the Camp de Aviation Point Clos , on the north-eastern edge of the forest of Paimpont / Brocéliande from 1925 . Parts of the Armée de l'air from Chartres and Tours were stationed here.
The airfield was expanded by the German Air Force during the German occupation in World War II . The Group I of the Airborne Squadron 1 (I./LLG 1) was for a short time in May 1943 with their do-17 -Schleppflugzeugen and DFS-230 - gliders in Gaël. Between November 1943 and the beginning of March 1944 the place was the base of a fighter squadron, the 12th squadron of Jagdgeschwader 2 (12./JG 2) equipped with Fw 190 .
The airfield was the target of Allied air raids on several occasions.
After the area was liberated by the US Army, Airfield A.31 , as Gaël's Allied code designation, was a base for the 354th Fighter Group , a P-51 unit of the United States Army Air Forces , from mid-August to late September 1944 .
After the war, the airfield was no longer used and only a few remains have survived.
| year | 1846 | 1906 | 1954 | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2007 | 2017 |
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| Residents | 2,295 | 2,654 | 2,038 | 1,466 | 1,673 | 1,515 | 1,484 | 1.406 | 1,350 | 1,541 | 1,634 |
_%C3%89glise_Saint-Pierre_01.jpg)
Personalities
- Saint Jodok , born around 600 (probably) in Gaël
- Ralph de Gaël de Montfort (* before 1040; † around 1097), Lord of Gaël and Montfort-sur-Meu
literature
- Le Patrimoine des Communes d'Ille-et-Vilaine. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-84234-072-8 , pp. 1575-1580.
Web links
- Website about the former airfield (French) ( page no longer available )
- Website on the former airfield (english) ( not available page )