RAF Wildenrath
| Royal Air Force Station Wildenrath | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | EDUW (1990) | ||
| IATA code | WID (1990) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 85 m (279 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 2 km southeast of Wildenrath | ||
| Street | on the B 221 , around 10 kilometers each to the A 46 and A 52 | ||
| train | Connection via Arsbeck , Rheindahlen , Rheydt to the rail network of the DB | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | January 15, 1952 | ||
| closure | 2nd November 1992 | ||
| operator | Royal Air Force | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 09/27 (1990) | 2497 m × 45 m asphalt | ||
The British Royal Air Force operated from 1952 to 1992 a military airfield in Wildenrath , a district of Wegberg in Kreis Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia , west of Mönchengladbach, about 40 kilometers west of Dusseldorf . The Royal Air Force Station Wildenrath , RAF Wildenrath for short , was next to RAF Brüggen , RAF Laarbruch , RAF Geilenkirchen and RAF Nörvenich the first of a total of five so-called clutch stations , newly built RAF bases near the border with the Netherlands and therefore as far as possible away from the front line at the time on the inner-German border .
history
With the beginning of the Cold War it was clear that the British Air Force of Occupation , which had been stationed in northwest Germany as an occupying power since 1945 , would remain stationed in the Federal Republic for a longer period of time. The RAF was based in the first years after the war in several mostly former airbases of the former Air Force , some of which are only a few minutes flying time from the " Iron Curtain " were removed.
It was decided to station the aircraft as far away as possible from the inner-German border in the British sector on the Dutch border. So the construction work began in 1950 with the clearing of forest areas. A runway 1830 meters long was created. This was later extended again by 610 meters so that transport aircraft, bombers, tankers or reconnaissance aircraft such as Lockheed C-130 Hercules , Avro Vulcan , Handley Page Victor or British Aerospace Nimrod can take off and land. In addition to its function as a fighter aircraft base, the station was also intended to be used as a transshipment point for troop and freight transports.
A housing estate with 180 buildings was built next to the airfield, which, like the rest of the airfield, was hidden in the forest. The entire area was fenced in with barbed wire and was closely guarded by motorized, mounted and dog handler patrols. Access to civilians was only possible at the invitation of military personnel. High- ranking officers and civil employees ( e.g. meteorologists) could live in one of two housing estates within the village. However, strong security precautions were also taken here, for example the British military police patrolled every half hour. Every morning a special team searched both settlements for bombs, using mirrors on long rods to search in all garbage cans and under the cars, especially after an attempted murder by two IRA members on a RAF corporal and his daughter in neighboring Wildenrath on October 26th 1989.
Flight operations began in the spring of 1952 and after a few weeks the new station was home to three squadrons of Vampire FB.5 that had previously been in RAF Gütersloh . In March 1953 the first Saber F4 arrived in Wildenrath. It was the first Saber ever in the command area of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, so the station was initially home to the training association for the new type of aircraft, the Saber Conversion Flight . The first two squadrons were then set up in May.
In the first decade and a half after its opening, the station mainly housed nuclear-equipped Canberra PR7 / B (I) 8 , initially one, later two squadrons. In 1970 three squadrons, the 3rd , 4th and 20th Squadron , whiz kid Harrier were stationed here, which in 1976 were relocated to the RAF Gütersloh base, which is closer to the inner-German border. In return, the two interceptor squadrons previously located in Gütersloh, the 19th and 92nd Squadron , came to Wildenrath, where they used the Phantom FGR.2 . Until German reunification, they provided quick reaction alert readiness for northwest Germany. The last flight day with the British aerobatic team Red Arrows took place on August 22, 1988.
Allegedly both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons were temporarily stored at Wildenrath airfield , which were officially assigned to the neighboring RAF Brüggen .
In 1990, the year of German reunification, the government of the United Kingdom published a first troop reduction program after the fall of the “ Iron Curtain ”. The RAF Germany was halved in a row, with RAF Wildenrath being the first station to be closed in 1992 after the Phantoms had left the station in 1991.
The Rhine Army also used the base: The last flying unit here was the 12 Flight of the Army Air Corps (AAC) , whose origins go back to the 1912th Light Liaison Flight of the RAF, which had been stationed in Wildenrath since December 1954. With her four Gazelle AH.1 helicopters she moved to RAF Brüggen in June 1992 .
Civil re-use
In the first years after the property was returned by RAF Germany , the huge area of the former airfield was used as a music festival area. In 1993 the three-day rock concert Rock over Germany took place. Summerjam, a reggae festival, was held here for the next two years . One of the large maintenance hangars Hangar 5 was used until 2001 for larger national events, including parties of the WDR youth broadcaster 1 Live .
Today is on parts of the site, after successful conversion of commercial and industrial park Wegberg-Wildenrath, among others, the, Siemens - Wegberg-Wildenrath for rail vehicles. Some old shelters and hangars as well as about a third of the original runway still exist today and are being reclaimed by pedestrians and nature.
Incidents
From 1953 until the closure in November 1992, there were 21 total write-offs of aircraft at Wildenrath airfield and in its vicinity. 5 people were killed.
See also
literature
- Marcus Herbote, Wilfried Zetsche: British Harriers , Part 1. AirDOC Verlag, Erlangen 2008, ISBN 978-3-935687-14-0
- Marcus Herbote, Wilfried Zetsche: British Phantoms . AirDOC Verlag, Erlangen 2003, ISBN 978-3-935687-05-8
Web links
- RAFWeb.org (English)
- RonaldV.nl (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Taylor: Brits: The War Against the IRA . Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2001, ISBN 978-0-7475-5806-4 , pp. 303 ( Wildenrath in the Google book search).
- ^ Assassination near Mönchengladbach . IRA admits cowardly murder of soldier and child. In: Trierischer Volksfreund . Volksfreund-Druckerei Nikolaus Koch, Trier October 28, 1989, p. 1 ( volksfreund.de [PDF; 1.7 MB ]). volksfreund.de ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ List of accidents at Wildenrath airfield , Aviation Safety Network WikiBase , accessed on July 26, 2018.
