Gilze-Rijen military airfield

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Gilze-Rijen flight base
Vliegbasis Gilze-Rijen - Aerial photograph.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code EHGR
IATA code GLZ
Coordinates

51 ° 34 '2 "  N , 4 ° 55' 54"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 34 '2 "  N , 4 ° 55' 54"  E
Height above MSL 15 m (49  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 10 km west of Tilburg
Street north of the A 58
Basic data
opening 1910
operator Dutch Air Force
Runways
10/28 2779 m × 45 m asphalt
02/20 1996 m × 30 m asphalt

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The Vliegbasis Gilze-Rijen is a military airfield of the Dutch Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) . The base is in the province of North Brabant in the area of ​​the municipality of Gilze en Rijen between the two eponymous districts. Today it serves the Dutch armed forces in particular as the main deployment point for their transport and combat helicopters. These also use the Militair Luchtvaart Terrein Deelen .

history

Gilze-Rijen military airfield is one of the oldest airfields in the Netherlands. The first flight took place here in 1910 and the place has been used for military purposes since 1913.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht , the base was first by the Luftwaffe bombed and later in the Second World War strengthened by it and even when air base used. From September 1940 to the end of March 1944, various parts of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (NJG 2) were stationed here, most of them in groups of three, sometimes four squadrons. Groups of Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30) also occupied several months in the years 1940 to 1942 , especially during the Battle of Britain . Later, from 1942 to 1944, it was part of Kampfgeschwaders 2 (KG 2). At the beginning of 1944, III./Kampfgeschwader 2 was located here to carry out the Steinbock operation .

Visit of Queen Wilhelmina to RAF Douglas DC-3 Dakota , 1945

After the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, the area was repeatedly the target of attacks, particularly by the United States Army Air Forces, and after the liberation of the southern Netherlands in September of that year, Airfield B-77 , the allied code name Gilze-Rijens, became a base of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). A number of different RAF day and night fighter squadrons used Gilze-Rijen between autumn 1944 and summer 1945, including the RAF's first jet squadron , the 616th Squadron , for a few weeks in April 1945 with their Meteor F1 . The 137th Squadron ( 137th Wing ), initially equipped with two B-25 Mitchell II / III squadrons, was last here between April and November 1945 . In addition to the 226th Squadron , it consisted of the French 342nd (French) Squadron ( Groupe de Bombardement 1/20 "Lorraine"), the last Allied squadron in Gilze-Rijen.

In 1946 the Koninklijke Luchtmacht resumed operations and used the space for pilot training and the training of air traffic controllers . With a five-year break from 1962, during which the airfield was only used as an alternative location for bombers, it was used as a school base until 1971.

Between 1971 and 1995, Gilze-Rijen was the home base of the 314th Squadron , which first flew the CF-5A / NF-5B and later the F-16A / B. For this purpose, the airfield was expanded again, including 30 hardened aircraft shelters .

After another reorganization of the air force after the end of the Cold War , the Gilze-Rijen air base became a helicopter base.

Since the end of 2014, remnants of the Boeing 777 from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 have been reassembled here to determine the cause of the crash .

Todays use

The base is currently (2014) used by the following flying squadrons :

There are also other non-flying formations.

Web links

Commons : Gilze-Rijen Air Base  - Collection of images, videos and audio files