Laon-Athies military airfield
| Laon-Athies Air Base | |||
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| Characteristics | |||
| Coordinates | |||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 8 km northeast of Laon | ||
| Street |
D 977 6 km to 
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| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1939 | ||
| closure | 1967 | ||
| operator | most recently United States Air Force | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 02/20 | 2550 m of concrete | ||
The Laon-Athies Air Base (French. Base aérienne de Laon-Athies ) was most recently a NATO - military airport of United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) in France , whose roots date back to the time of World War II, reaching back.
The former base is located in the region of Hauts-de-France in the department of Aisne on the municipalities Athies-sous-Laon and Samoussy , about eight kilometers northeast of Laon .
history
In 1939 the French state expropriated 130 hectares of agricultural land, which later formed the northeastern part of the NATO base, to build an airfield.
Second World War
After the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht , Laon-Athies became an airfield for the German Air Force , which mainly stationed twin-engine combat aircraft here. The airfield on the edge of a forest was expanded into an airfield with, among other things, three runways.
Between July 1941 and January 1942, the airfield housed the He 111H of part of the IV. Supplementary Group of Kampfgeschwader 4 (IV./KG 4) and later from mid-July to late November 1943 the Ju 88A of III. Group of the Kampfgeschwader 76 (III./KG 76). During the late summer of 1943, the 3rd squadron of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 (3./NJG 4) was also located here ; at that time the squadron was equipped with Bf 110 , Ju 88 and Do 217 . In the following winter the III. Group of the Schlachtgeschwader 4 (III./SG 4)), equipped with the Fw 190F / G , the 2nd squadron of the NJG 4 (2./NJG 4) and the 13th squadron of the Kampfgeschwader 2 (13./KG 2) from Laon-Athies.
Between March and May 1944 Bf 110 of the III. Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwaders 1 (III./NJG 1) and then until August 1944 the airfield housed Stab and III. Gruppe Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 (S. and III./NJG 5).
In addition to the airborne units, the air force maintained a maintenance and repair facility here. The airfield was repeatedly the target of US bombers from the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in 1943/1944 .
Before they withdrew, the Germans destroyed the infrastructure, which was captured by Allied ground troops in early September 1944. Airfield A.69 , the Allied code name of Laon-Ahies, was makeshift repaired by the USAAF for flight operations by the Ninth Air Force . Between mid-September and the beginning of October 1944 P-47s of the 368th Fighter Group lay here , reinforced for ten days in the second half of September by those of the 50th Fighter Group .
They were replaced by the B-26s of the 323d Bombardment Group in mid-October , which remained stationed here until February 1945. The last user was the 416th Bombardment Group , which flew the A-26 . The airfield was closed at the end of May 1945 and returned to France.
Laon-Athies Air Base
Since the French air force had no need for the airfield, the area was leased to local farmers. With the beginning of the Cold War , France offered the grounds to the Americans for renewed use. Due to the high repair and expansion costs as well as the cost of buying out the farmers' leases, Laon-Athies did not become a fully-fledged operational base. Laon-Athies was therefore only expanded into an alternative place from 1954. For this purpose, the area was cleared of the war damage and a jetted runway was created.
With the exception of a few approaches, however, the base was never used and was abandoned after France's withdrawal from NATO's military structures.
Todays use
After the Americans left, the property was no longer used for military purposes. Today the area is used for agriculture again, although a large part of the concrete runways and parking spaces of the US air base still exist, as well as the two concrete runways from the time of the Second World War.
