Clastres-Saint-Simon military airfield
| Base aérienne de Clastres – Saint-Simon | |
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFYT |
| Coordinates | |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 12 km southwest of Saint-Quentin |
| Street |
D 34 / D 341 12 km to 
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| Basic data | |
| opening | 1917 |
| closure | 1997 |
| operator | lastly Armée de l'air |
| Start-and runway | |
| 02/20 | 2389 m × 45 m concrete |
The Base aérienne de Clastres-Saint-Simon was a military airfield , the roots of which reached back to the beginnings of military aviation.
The property is located in the region of Hauts-de-France in the department of Aisne on the municipalities Clastres , Artemps and on a small corner of Seraucourt-le-Grand , about twelve kilometers southwest of Saint-Quentin .
There is a race track on parts of the area.
history
The history of the airfield began at the time of the First World War , with the Grass airfield at that time located in the northeast of the later NATO airfield. The German air force used the area for the first time in spring 1917 and again in August 1918. In the last weeks of 1918 French airmen were still lying here.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II , the Armée de l'Air returned to Clastres at the end of August 1939 and used the airfield until shortly after the start of the German Wehrmacht's western campaign in mid-May 1940. In the further course of the campaign, there were also short German Bf 109E's - Fighter planes.
During the subsequent German occupation of France, after a few years of calm in 1943, the airfield was expanded into an interceptor base for the Luftwaffe , including two 1800 m concrete runways. The airfield was subsequently repeatedly attacked by Allied bombers. The III. Group of the Schlachtgeschwader 4 was here with their Fw 190F / G from February 1944 and remained stationed here until the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy , with the 7th squadron having been relocated to Le Luc in mid-May . In their place, the airfield was the location of the staff of Jagdgeschwader 1 with some Bf 109G and Fw 190A until the end of August 1944 .
After the liberation of the area by the Allies, the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) continued to use the poorly repaired Airfield A.71 , its Allied code name, until the end of the war. The second user was the 387th Bombardment Group , which was stationed with its B-26 from late October 1944 to late April 1945. Initially, the 367th Fighter Group, equipped with P-38 , was located here from early September to late October 1944 . The airfield was later used as a depot and in the summer as a storage location for decommissioned aircraft before being transported back to the United States and returned to France in late November.
In the following years, the area was initially unused for military purposes. The land was leased to local farmers after ammunition and other war scraps were disposed of.
With the beginning of the Cold War , the airfield was expanded from 1953 to a NATO reserve airfield suitable for jets for the United States Air Force (USAF). In addition to the new runway, which is still visible today, Castres was given three parking areas for three jet squadrons and space for a total of around 50 fighter planes . The square was only used for sporadic "touch-and-gos" and was kept operational until France left the military structures of NATO in 1967.
Clastres was then taken over again by the Armée de l'Air, which used it until 1997, among other things, as an alternative to base 103 in Cambrai . The area was also used as part of basic military training.
Todays use
In addition to the race track mentioned, the unsealed areas are now mainly used for agriculture, with a few wind turbines on the site.