Toul-Rosières military airfield
| Base aérienne 136 Toul-Rosières Toul-Rosières Air Base Rosières En Haye Airfield |
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|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFSL |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 285 m (935 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 14 km northeast of Toul |
| Street | 13 km to the 
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| Basic data | |
| opening | November 21, 1944 |
| closure | July 1, 2000 |
| operator | Armée de l'air (last) |
| Start-and runway | |
| 04/22 | 2400 m × 45 m concrete |
The former base aérienne 136 Toul-Rosières (BA 136) was a military airfield of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ). The base was in the Lorraine region in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department between Toul, south-east of Rosières-en-Haye . Today there is u. a. a solar park of the EDF . A small exhibition of military aircraft still reminds of the time as a military airfield.
history
The Toul-Rosières base dates from the final phase of the Second World War and was built for the United States Army Air Forces in a very short time and released for flight operations as Airfield A.98 on November 21, 1944.
Military aviation near Toul, however, began during the First World War on the Aérodrome Toul-Croix De Metz, which is directly outside of Toul , also in a north-easterly direction .
In addition to these two airfields, about 13 km south of Toul there is the Nany-Ochey base , which was also called Toul-Ochey during the war. In addition, the Chambley-Bussières base located 20 km north of Rosières, now an aerodrome used by civilians, was subject to BA 136.
Toul-Croix de Metz military airfield
The first military airfield in the Toul area was a good 2 km northeast of the city. It was created under the name Gengault Aérodrome around 1916 as a front-line airfield for the French air force. In April 1918 he became a base of the United States Army Air Service (so the name from May 1918) of the American Expeditionary Forces . Various squadrons and balloon companies were located here. The tasks of the units included aerial reconnaissance and observation, attacks on enemy observation balloons, ground attacks on enemy troops, surveillance flights and bombing raids on cities and infrastructure. Several famous US military personnel from both world wars were stationed here during the year. These included Eddie Rickenbacker , Quentin Roosevelt, Frank Luke , Carl Spaatz, and Billy Mitchell .
After the end of the war, the Americans withdrew and the Aérodrome was expanded into a permanent base for the French air forces.
At the end of the Second World War , the 358th, 50th and 27th Fighter Group, equipped with P-36 and P-51 , were located here from December 9, 1944 , a squadron of which continued the tradition of the Escadrille La Fayette . After the fall of France in 1940 "Toul-Nord" was an airbase of the German Air Force , which took him first to the formation of ground-support organizations. The aviation use only began again in March 1942 with the III. Group of Destroyer School 2 , whose Bf 110s were here until July 1942. After the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy , in July / August 1944, Toul became the base for the He 111 of the staff and III. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 53 (S. and III./KG 53), which served as carrier aircraft for V1 cruise missiles shot down in flight . During this time the airfield was the target of air raids by the American Eighth Air Force .
In the first half of September the 3rd US Army occupied the airfield and the USAAF was able to use the little damaged area itself after a short time. Airfield A.90 , as its allied code designation, was initially used for replenishment flights with the C-47 and was home to the Ninth Air Force's 358th Fighter Group equipped with P-47 between November 1944 and April 1945 . After the war ended, the airfield was closed and returned to France on October 30, 1945. Today there is an industrial area in its place.
Toul-Rosières Air Base
The Rosières En Haye Airfield was used by the 354th Fighter Group between November 1944 and April 1945 and was the target of German air raids several times in the winter nights of 1944/1945. The area was returned to France shortly after the end of the war on May 22, 1945 and after extensive clearing up and cleaning it was used for agriculture.
After the beginning of the Cold War , France ceded the area near Rosières to the United States Air Force (USAF) as part of its NATO obligations . Toul was chosen because of its connection with the United States dating back to World War I and because the site was immediately available. However, the buildings and runways of the former field airfield could no longer be used. In February 1951, the reconstruction of a modern base for the operation of jet-powered aircraft began and at the end of the same year the first US advance command arrived. In January 1952, Toul was initially to become the home base of reconnaissance aircraft of the RF-80 , RB-26 and some T-33 types for 16 months , initially until July 1952 as the 117th and then as the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (10th TRW). However, the base was not yet ready for use, so that the aircraft operated from Wiesbaden , Fürstenfeldbruck and Neubiberg . Only the season in Wiesbaden moved to Toul in the summer of 1952, the other two remained in Bavaria. The 10th TRW finally moved to Spangdahlem in early May 1953 .
From November 1953 to May 1955, while the infrastructure was being expanded, Toul-Rosières was the home base of the 465th Troop Carrier Wing , which was equipped with a C-119 . Its squadrons also operated mainly from German places, in addition to Wiesbaden and Neubiberg also Rhein-Main . In the following year, the expansion was completed and in July 1956, Toul became home to the 50th Fighter-Bomber Wing , whose main operational model was the F-86H . One of the squadrons was commanded by Chuck Yeager . Already in May 1957 the conversion to the F-100D / F began and at the end of December 1959 the squadron relocated to Hahn , the background were disagreements regarding the squadron's nuclear weapons.
In the same year "TRAB" However, home was an RB-66 - Detachments of the now in RAF Alconbury lying 10th TRW and in July 1965 was here 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (26th TRW) set up. During the Berlin crisis in 1961, F-86F 131st Tactical Fighter Wing , an Air National Guard association, also flew from Toul. In addition to the RB-66, the 26th TRW initially also flew the RF-101C . In October 1965 the first RF-4C arrived at the squadron. Due to France's withdrawal from the military structure of NATO, the 26th TRW left Toul a year later for Ramstein and the base was handed over to France on April 1, 1967.
BA.136 Toul-Rosières
In return for the USAFE's withdrawal from France, French units that had previously been in southwest Germany were relocated to France. On June 21, 1967, Toul-Rosières became a French base and home to the 11th Squadron ( Escadre ), which had previously been in Bremgarten . This consisted of three flying squadrons (EC 1/11 "Roussillon", EC 2/11 "Vosges" and EC 3/11 "Corse"), all of which were equipped with the F-100D . F-100 were stationed in Toul until the beginning of November 1976, the last user was the EC 2/11.
The successor was the Jaguar A . The conversion had started in August 1974 at the EC 3/11. The local squadrons were used in the years up to their dissolution in Africa, in the Gulf and over Yugoslavia . The squadrons were decommissioned one after the other after the Cold War ended between 1994 and 1997.
The base was downgraded to a detachment (DA 136) on September 1, 1998 , and military flight operations were officially ceased on July 1, 2000. In the following four years, the conversion began initially under military direction and after the majority of the military had withdrawn in the summer of 2004, civil re-use began. The site was occasionally used for military exercises until 2010, and in January 2010 there were even more flight movements of transport aircraft. The military use was finally stopped on May 14, 2011.
Todays use
The main user of the area is the energy supplier EDF, who started building a solar park here in 2011. The Centrale photovoltaïque de Toul-Rosières is the largest of its kind in France.
Others
Base aérienne Bremgarten (BA 136)
