Salon-de-Provence military airfield
| Base aérienne 701 Salon-de-Provence | |||
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LFMY | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 59 m (194 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 4 km south of Salon de Provence | ||
| Street |
D 113 1 km to 
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| Basic data | |||
| operator | Armée de l'air | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 16/34 | 2001 m × 45 m concrete | ||
The Base aérienne 701 Salon-de-Provence (BA 701) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ). The base, which is named after "Général Pineau" since 1989, is located in the region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône about four kilometers east of the center of Orange . It is the home base of various training institutions and the base of the Alpha Jets E of the Patrouille de France aerobatic team .
history
The Salon-de-Provence base was built in the run-up to the Second World War and since 1938 has housed the officers' school of the Armée de l'Air .
After the outbreak of war it served a few days before the armistice the British RAF Bomber Command to attack with Wellington - bombers in northern Italian cities of Genoa as part of Operation Haddock.
After the armistice, the Armée de l'Air de Vichy used Salon-de-Provence as a fighter base. The GC I / 6 (1) , which was equipped with Morane-Saulnier MS.406 , and the GC III / 9 with Bloch MB.152 were located here .
As part of Operation Anton, the German took over Air Force airfield on 11 November 1942 and used it from then on as a military airfield . It served the Germans in particular as a base for bomber units whose task was to combat sea targets, especially US ship convoys, in the Mediterranean . In the course of 1943, operations against the Allied troops that had landed in Sardinia and Corsica were added. During the German control the airfield was repeatedly the target of Allied air raids.
Initially, from the end of 1942, the I. Group of Kampfschulgeschwaders 1 (I./KSG 1), equipped with Ju 88A , was located here , which was renamed to I. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 101 (I./KG 101) on February 1, 1943 and paralleled in April 1943 He 111H of the I. Group of the Kampfgeschwader 100 (I./KG 100). Staff I and II of Kampfgeschwader 26 followed in May of that year (S., I. and II./KG 26), which were also equipped with He 111H and were in Salon until March 1944, June 1943 and April 1944, respectively .
In addition to the air defense until August 1943, the 2nd and then the 4th squadron of the Jagdgruppe Süd, equipped with Bf 109F / G , were added .
The III equipped with Ju 88A . Group of Kampfgeschwader 77 (III./KG 77) lay here for a week in mid-March 1944. In May / June 1944 there was a short period in which the 8th Squadron of Destroyer Wing 1 (8./ZG 1) equipped with Bf 110 for air defense against the B-26 of the Twelfth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) operated from Salon. Subsequently, the airfield became a bomber base again for four weeks in June / July 1944, now from the staff and I. Group of KG 77 (S. and I./KG 77), also with Ju 88A.
Shortly after the start of Operation Dragoon , the Allied invasion of southern France, the base was occupied by US troops, poorly repaired and from the end of August 1944 used as Airfield Y-16 by the Twelfth Air Force of the USAAF. The first user was the North American A-36 of the 27th Fighter Squadron until October 1944 . In addition, the 47th Bombardment Group was here in September with its Douglas A-20 Havoc . However, use by the USAAF was short-lived and the base was returned to France on November 20, 1944.
After the end of the war, the Armée de l'Air used the Salon-de-Provence base again as a training base, a use that continues to this day.
Todays use
The base is home to a number of training facilities including the
- Ecole de l'air : the military academy of the French Air Force since 1946
- École militaire de l'Air , the non-commissioned officer school of the French Air Force, since 1946
A number of mainly single-engine training aircraft of various types are available for beginner training.
In addition, as mentioned above, the Patrouille de France , which has been stationed here since 1964, is another air force .
