Nike position Mainbullau

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nike position near Mainbullau , a district of the city of Miltenberg in the Miltenberg district in Bavaria , was a rocket launch site of the US Army from the Cold War era .

The facility was used in various ways by the military from the late 1950s to 1992. After the withdrawal of the US armed forces, the site and the remaining buildings are largely occupied by Maxiholz ​​GmbH, which produces wood chips there. The shooting range at the former fire control area is used by members of the German Hunting Protection Association.

Geographical location

The military site was built on the wooded 464-meter-high Steinkopf in the Odenwald , an elongated ridge high above the valley of the Ohrbach, sloping to the southwest and northwest of Mainbullau. The missile battery was distributed linearly along a west-east axis one and a half kilometers in length. The connection to the regional road network was made from Mainbullau via a paved cul-de-sac.

history

In the second half of the 1950s, the US armed forces began to deploy the newly developed Nike anti-aircraft missile system in Europe. It was supposed to provide a defense against soaring nuclear armed bombers of the Warsaw Pact . Originally it was planned to set up a firing position for Nike Ajax and later Nike Hercules missiles, which could also be equipped with a nuclear warhead , on the ridge near Vielbrunn and the already existing Hainhaus ammunition storage facility . However, this location met with resistance from local committees, primarily because of the consumption of good arable land. Finally, a forest above Mainbullau was selected.

The system consisted of three parts, described here according to their arrangement from west to east. The IFC (Integrated Fire Control) fire control area with radar systems on the summit of the Steinkopf, the living area with barracks and vehicle maintenance building and the launching area directly adjacent to the Mainbullau corridor . There were buildings for the maintenance of warheads and missiles, bunkers for storage, several hangars to accommodate the launch vehicles and concrete launching areas. The B-battery of the 1st Battalion of the 67th Air Defense Artillery Division with around 80 to 130 soldiers was stationed here.

After the Nike Hercules missiles were withdrawn in mid-1969, the area was unoccupied for about a decade. At the beginning of the 1970s, it was intended for a time as a QRA zone (Quick Reaction Alert) for 3rd Bn, 84th FA of the 56th Field Artillery Brigade from Neckarsulm, which was equipped with nuclear-armed short-range ballistic missiles of the Pershing I type . The NATO name at that time was "Interim Pershing Site 19".

As the last military user , the 2043rd CSG (Ord) (Civilian Support Group Ordnance, civilian employees of the US Army) was stationed in Mainbullau in 1979, parallel to the expansion of the Hainhaus ammunition depot . The unit was responsible for the handling and maintenance of the ammunition in the depots Hainhaus (PSP 5J) and Wertheim (PSP 6J) and primarily used the actual barracks as accommodation. In 1992 the site was finally cleared by the military.

In the 2000s, the attempt to build wind turbines in the area of ​​the IFC failed .

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 41 ′ 42.5 ″  N , 9 ° 9 ′ 45 ″  E