Special ammunition depot

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Earth bunker and watchtower of the former Engratshofen special ammunition dump

Special ammunition dump ( English Special Ammunition Storage , SAS ) are verbunkerte logistical facilities of the US military , in which US nuclear warheads stored, maintained and guarded. Even NATO states that do not have nuclear weapons themselves maintain SAS for US nuclear weapons as part of their nuclear participation , which can be deployed with their own delivery systems (aircraft, missiles, guns, etc.) in the event of a nuclear war . The responsible US military unit was the 59th Ordnance Brigade .

Most of these camps in Europe were disbanded after the end of the Cold War during the 1990s.

Bunkers for nuclear warheads that are still known today and used as special ammunition storage (as of early 2010) are located in Belgium ( Kleine Brogel ), Germany ( Büchel Air Base ), Italy ( Aviano and Ghedi-Torre ), the Netherlands ( Volkel ) and Turkey ( Incirlik Air Base ) at the locations of delivery systems for tactical nuclear weapons .

Special ammunition depot in the Federal Republic of Germany

Establishment from 1953

Under the geopolitical realities of the Cold War , the two-part Germany, as the central front area of ​​the bloc confrontation between NATO states and the Eastern Bloc or the Warsaw Pact (from 1955), acquired particular importance for the rearmament policy of the leading powers, the USA and the Soviet Union. In 1953, in connection with the stationing of the nuclear-armed US howitzer M65 ( Atomic Annie ), the United States Army's first special ammunition depots were set up on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. The first nuclear aerial bombs were brought into the Federal Republic by the USA in March 1955, shortly afterwards also atomic mines (ADM) and nuclear warheads for cruise missiles and short-range missiles . A possible use of these nuclear weapons, however, was initially intended exclusively through weapon systems of the USA. It was only after the establishment of the Bundeswehr in 1957 that the USA informed the German public about the existence of the weapons. Shortly thereafter, Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer enforced the option of using tactical nuclear weapons carriers by the Bundeswehr in the event of war as part of nuclear participation against protests by large sections of the population . However, the nuclear ammunition intended for the German carrier systems always remained in the sovereignty and supervision of the US armed forces. In the following years, at the instigation of Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss , the Bundeswehr received numerous carrier systems for nuclear weapons, which were stored in the Federal Defense’s SAS. US soldiers were on guard in the inner area, while the outer area was secured by guard units of the Bundeswehr.

From the beginning of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1990s, SAS was assigned to every major unit of the Bundeswehr at corps and division level in the Federal Republic of Germany . In the late phase of the Cold War there were finally around 100 SAS on German territory.

The SAS, the exact contents of which were subject to military secrecy and only known to the senior officers of the US armed forces, were divided into a specially secured inner and outer restricted area. In the inner area, the stored warheads were secured by US guard units. In the outer area, material for use and repair was kept. The outer area was secured by a guard and escort battery or squadron of the Bundeswehr. These units were organized at company level . They usually consisted of four moves and were for use u. a. armed with field cannons FK 20 . The SW transport battalions (special weapons ), later renamed the SW Supply Battalion, were responsible for US nuclear weapons at corps level . At the same time, there were non-active security battalions (mob) for emergency situations.

The special ammunition depots on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany became known to the general public when the magazine Stern published an article in January 1981 under the title “Atomrampe BRD”, in which the West German locations of the nuclear weapons depots were disclosed. It became clear that there were numerous nuclear weapons depots in the Federal Republic. The NATO double resolution of 1979 provided for the stationing of medium-range missiles and cruise missiles with nuclear warheads in addition to the already existing nuclear-capable weapons systems . Against this decision, the peace movement revived , which within a few months grew into a social mass movement . Nevertheless, they were stationed.

Entrance to the inner restricted area ("J-Lager") of the former special ammunition dump Golf with control building and watchtower (March 2016)

One of these sites, the Eberhard Finck barracks or the connected because special ammunition depot Golf on the Swabian Alb came in the early 1980s in the international headlines when different stakeholders of the peace movement several times and for extended periods of the access roads to the camp by sit-ins blocked . This form of action, as part of civil disobedience , became more widespread a little later in front of the retrofit stationing sites, especially on the Mutlanger Heide as the most well-known stationing site of Pershing II medium-range missiles ; the so-called prominent blockade in September 1983, for example, was of particular publicity.

Eviction from the beginning of the 1990s

Demonstration against nuclear weapons in Germany, August 2008, near the Büchel air base

After the end of the Cold War, most of the special ammunition depots were cleared by the US military in the early 1990s and thus relieved of their military purpose. Nevertheless, individual depots with nuclear ammunition still existed on the territory of the Federal Republic. The largest special ammunition depot in Germany was located at Ramstein Air Base near Kaiserslautern . Nuclear ammunition was withdrawn from there in 2005.

In 2015, with the depot near Büchel in Rhineland-Palatinate , there is at least one special ammunition storage facility with nuclear ammunition for tornado fighter-bombers on German soil.

Map of former locations

Further locations of former warehouses are available in an overview map.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. " Where the bombs really are " ; Report by Otfried Nassauer , Head of the Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security (BITS), dated February 28, 2010 on the Belgian nuclear weapons site in Kleine Brogel
  2. Article Nuclear Participation on www.atomwaffena-z.info ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2010 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.atomwaffena-z.info
  3. Section “Locations” in the article on the history of nuclear weapons in Germany; on www.atomwaffena-z.info ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2010 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.atomwaffena-z.info
  4. z. B. US Army Missile Detachment, US Army Field Artillery Detachment; Staff approx. 30 to 40.
  5. History of the "Special Ammunition Depot Golf"
  6. Documentation on the actions of the peace movement around the Eberhard Finckh barracks and the "special golf ammunition dump"
  7. ^ Photos of the "Prominentenblockade" near Mutlangen, September 1983
  8. ^ Locations of former special ammunition depots in the area of ​​the ("old") Federal Republic. Retrieved on July 9, 2018. Original link no longer available, now kmz file for google earth or marble virtual globe at archive.org

Web links