Firing range madness

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The Wahn shooting range was located in the Wahner Heide between the cities of Cologne , Rösrath , Troisdorf and Lohmar , about south of today 's Cologne / Bonn Airport .

Emergence

Development of the Wahn military training area 1818–1945

The Prussian military administration bought in 1817 parts of Wahner Heide for the establishment of a foot artillery -Schießplatzes for stationed in Cologne VII. Royal Prussian artillery Brigade . In 1818 the training of the Landwehr from the Cologne area began with the so-called “Sunday exercises”. From 1833, field and fortress artillery as well as mounted brigades took place in the Wahner Heide. An optical telegraph line between Berlin and Koblenz was set up.

Due to ongoing protests against the shooting operations, there were considerations to give up the heath as a military training area , but in 1856 it was finally decided to keep the Wahn location. The shooting range has been expanded considerably over the course of time through acquisitions, in part also through expropriation of the respective landowners.

From 1861 massive buildings were erected. The field depot was created in 1870. In the same year during the Franco-Prussian War , a barracks camp was built west of the mouse path to accommodate French prisoners of war.

From 1877, an extensive field railway network was laid out on the artillery firing range. Altenrath received a military station. In 1916 the route was already 24 kilometers long and eight locomotives, so-called Illinge (half twins), were in use. The soldiers called the train, which also carried mobile artillery targets, the Fiery Elias .

Development until 1918

In 1909 Colonel zD Waldemar Christ became the commandant of the foot artillery firing range Wahn. From 1913 on , air observers trained at the Butzweilerhof were also used for training purposes in artillery shooting. Aircraft could use the firing range for maintenance and refueling. This flight operation was called "Artilleriefliegerstation Wahn". In 1917 an airship hangar was built in Spich . There were also several balloon halls and an airfield . A pioneer camp now also belonged to the site . Around 10,000 prisoners of war were housed in the north camp during the First World War until 1917, after which the prisoner of war camps and pioneer units were relocated to other locations. The training area was used intensively for artillery exercises, for experiments with combat gases and for air defense exercises against airships and fighter planes.

As a result of a mutiny on the ships of the Imperial Navy in the summer of 1917, death sentences against the ringleaders Max Reichpietsch and Albin Köbis were carried out on September 5, 1917 at the Wahn firing range .

Development until 1945

After the end of the First World War, the firing range was occupied by Canadian troops , from January 1919 by the British and in 1920 by the French. After the occupation troops withdrew , the Wahner Heide was used for agriculture again. Former workers of the disused ammunition factory and former employees of the firing range lived on the firing range. From 1926, planning began for the construction of a civil airfield. In 1932 a nature reserve was set up in the Wahner Heide .

From 1933 the firing range was again used by the barracked state police and in 1936 the Wehrmacht took over the property. It was expanded from 2035 hectares to 5200 hectares. From 17 March 1936, the established Air Force an air base called E13 / VI in Luftgau VI (Munster). He was subordinate to the air base Cologne-Ostheim under the command of the general of the aviators Hugo Schmidt . With the beginning of the Second World War , various air force units flew missions against France and England from the Wahn field airfield . In May 1939, parts of the 79th Infantry Division and on November 12, 1940 the 106th Infantry Division were set up at the Wahn military training area. In 1940, the "Hoffnungsthal " camp was set up for Polish and French prisoners of war , later Soviet internees joined them.

The expansion of the military training area reached 52 square kilometers by the end of the Second World War. The transport network comprised 60 kilometers of paved roads, 160 kilometers of unpaved roads, a 16-kilometer field railway network and 20 kilometers of movable tracks.

Commanders of the training area were Major General Fritz Salitter (1933–1940) and Colonel Max Ber (1940–1944).

Development from 1945

On April 11, 1945, the US Army occupied the training area and set up a transit camp for around 15,000 former Eastern European forced laborers . The British RAF took over the firing range in June 1945, which was their main base in Germany until 1957. The military airfield was further expanded and received a 1,830 meter long and 50 meter wide concrete runway. A flight control tower, a weather station, several halls, night and obstacle lighting and radio systems were added - this later became the Cologne-Bonn airport . On July 18, 1957, the property was handed over to the Bundeswehr .

The Belgian armed forces used the Wahner Heide location until 2005 . The Bundeswehr also uses the location for exercises. In addition, the flight readiness of the Federal Ministry of Defense is stationed here.

Apart from the stresses caused by the military training area and airport operations , the Wahner Heide is now an important nature reserve.

literature

  • Our Porz, issue 11: The Garrison , publisher: Heimatverein Porz, 1969.
  • E. Plewig: History of the foot artillery shooting range Wahn and its development , 1927.

Web links

Commons : Wahn Training Area  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transporting ammunition and having fun for children: field railways through the Wahner Heide. pigasus.de, March 17, 2008, accessed April 17, 2013 .
  2. ^ History of Cologne Aviation. Historical Aviation Archive Cologne, archived from the original on February 1, 2014 ; Retrieved April 17, 2013 .