Juvincourt military airfield
| Aerodrome Berry au Bac-Juvincourt Base Aérienne Juvincourt |
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| Characteristics | |||
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| Distance from the city center | 30 km north of Reims | ||
| Street |
D 1044 , 14 km to
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| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1939 | ||
| closure | 1945 | ||
| operator | most recently United States Army Air Forces | ||
| Runways | |||
| 17/35 | 1610 m of concrete | ||
| 09/27 | 1600 m of concrete | ||
| 05/23 | 2438 m of concrete | ||
The military airfield Juvincourt (. Double Aerodrome Berry au Bac Juvincourt ) most recently served as NATO - military airport of United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) in France provided. However, this project was abandoned after construction began. During the Second World War it was an important airfield for Germans and allies.
The former base is in what is now the Hauts-de-France region in the Aisne department in the Juvincourt-et-Damary area , halfway between Reims and Laon, around two kilometers north of Berry-au-Bac .
history
In the period before the Second World War, the airfield was built in 1938/1939 for the Armée de l'air as a grass airfield with the three satellite fields Amifontaine, Guignicourt and Proviseux. Nothing is known about the permanent stationing of French aircraft before the war began.
After the outbreak of war, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) used the infrastructure, the 76th Squadron with the 12th and 142nd Squadron with its Fairey Battle was between the beginning of September 1939 and the beginning of the Western campaign in May 1940 and then operated from here for a week the Hawker Hurricanes of the 1st Squadron .
The airfield was after the armistice of June 1940 the largest airbase of the German air force , expanded in occupied France, with, among others, three concrete runways.
In the further course of the Battle of Britain between December 1940 and June 1941, Juvincourt initially became a base for Kampfgeschwader 77 equipped with Ju88A . The III. Group (III.KG 77) lay here over the entire period and from the beginning of March 1941 there was also the staff and from the end of March also the I group (I./KG 77).
Prior to the attack on the Soviet Union , the first with hit as the next Association Do 17Z equipped IV. Group of kampfgeschwader 2 (IV./KG 2). This was here until the beginning of 1942 and was upgraded to the Do 217 during this period .
In the second half of 1942 the airfield then became a base for German night fighters in the form of the III, also equipped with Ju 88 . Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 (III./NJG 4). The group stayed here until August 1944 and was converted to the Ju 88 during this period. In the winter of 1943/1944, the airfield was twice the target of air strikes by the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). He was also repeatedly attacked by fighters, fighter bombers and light bombers.
In the run-up to the expected Allied invasion , Air Observation Squadron 4 , equipped with some Bf 110 and Ju 88, was set up here at the beginning of May 1944 , but was disbanded almost two weeks after the invasion in mid-June. With the start of the invasion, the airfield became a bomber base again at the beginning of June 1944, and the Ju 88A of the I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 54 (I./KG 54) flew their missions until the end of July .
In August 1944, Juvincourt was the world's first airfield for a jet aircraft designed as a bomber . From here two prototypes of the Ar 234 flew reconnaissance missions over the canal front and southern England.
After a one-day interlude of the Bf 109G of the II. Group of Jagdgeschwader 11 (II./JG 11) in mid-August 1944, Juvincourt also saw the turbine hunter Me 262A-2a in operation at the end of August 1944 , initially as the Schenck Task Force and then shortly before its departure as I. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 51 (I./KG 51).
The airfield, which was further destroyed by the retreating German troops, was taken by American ground troops in early September 1944 and the northeastern area (runway 17/35) after a brief, makeshift repair as Airfield A.68 by the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF ) put back into operation. In September 1944 it was first used by the C-47s of the 439th Troop Carrier Group and between mid-September 1944 and the beginning of 1945 it was the base of five different fighter groups (the 404th , 365th , 36th , 367th and 368th ), all but the 367th the P-47 flew, the 367th flew the P-38 . The last task force in February / March 1945 was the 410th Bombardment Group equipped with A-20 .
After the end of the war, the RAF used the airfield again, this time for British, Australian and New Zealand repatriates . Operation "Exodus" involved Lancaster 's 50th and 186th Squadrons of the RAF and the 463rd and 467th Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Juvincourt was returned to France in early July 1945.
The French air force had no further need for the heavily damaged area, which after a few years after ammunition had been removed, was leased to local farmers.
After the beginning of the Cold War , France offered the site to the USA as a military airfield and a new NATO- compliant jetted runway was built (runway 05/23). However, due to the high costs of removing the original concrete slopes and the premature termination of the lease agreements with the farmers, construction was canceled. The USAF got other bases and the land was sold to the farmers.
Todays use
Remnants from wartime still exist today in the areas of the former air base, which are otherwise still used for agriculture. The south-eastern railway from the post-war period and its parking areas are now used by Robert Bosch GmbH as a test track .