Brétigny-sur-Orge military airfield
| Base aérienne 217 Brétigny-sur-Orge | |
|---|---|
|
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFPY |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 82 m (269 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Street | D 19 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1938/39 |
| closure | June 26, 2012 |
| surface | 750 ha |
| Runways | |
| 05/23 | 3000 m × 45 m concrete |
| 11/29 | 2200 m × 45 m concrete |
  | |
Location of the Brétigny-sur-Orge military airfield in France |
The Base aérienne 217 Brétigny-sur-Orge (BA 217) was a military airfield of the French Air Force (Armée de l'air) . The base is in the Region Ile-de-France in the department of Essonne on the territory of several municipalities in the east of Brétigny-sur-Orge , about 25 kilometers south of Paris . It was closed on June 26, 2012.
history
During the German occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht which used Air Force base as a military airfield . From November 1940 mainly Ju 88s and in 1944 also Ju 188 fighter planes from various squadrons were located here. These included the III. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 51 (III./KG 51), II. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 54 (II./KG 54), IV. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 30 (IV./KG 30) and staff, I., II. And IV. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 6 (S., I., II. And IV./KG 6), which were mainly used for bombing raids on England.
Following the successful Allied invasion of Normandy , Bf 109G of Group III of Jagdgeschwader 1 (III./JG 1) were added in August 1944 .
After the liberation of France by the Allies, the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) continued to use Airfield A.48 , the Allied code name for the base, from the end of August 1944. Between the end of August 1944 and the beginning of February 1945 twin-engine bombers were again lying here, initially of the Douglas A-20 Havoc type and from November 1944 Douglas A-26 Invader . In their place, Brétigny was a Douglas DC-3 / C-47 base for the next four and a half months . Among other things, they towed gliders as part of Operation Varsity on the Lower Rhine.
After the war, the base was expanded into a fully fledged NATO base suitable for jets . In the decades after the war, between 1945 and 2001, it housed the flight test center Center d'essais en vol de Brétigny-sur-Orge and, between 1946 and 1962, also the test pilot school École du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception (EPNER).
Todays use
After the air force base was closed, 300 hectares were given to the municipalities for conversion into commercial uses, while the rest continues to be used by the armed forces as a biomedical research institute. Concerts are also held on the site.
literature
- Natacha Eijckmans: Brétigny, base d'excellence. Soutien, actions, essais. Histoire de la base aérienne 217 colonel Félix Brunet . Éditions Privat, Toulouse 2012, ISBN 978-2-7089-9237-5 .
