Wattisham Airfield

Wattisham Airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGUW
Coordinates	52 ° 7 '38 "  N , 0 ° 57' 23"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '38 "  N , 0 ° 57' 23"  E
Height above MSL	87 m (285  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	15 km northwest of Ipswich
Street	8 km to the
Basic data
opening	April 5, 1939 ( RAF )
operator	British Army
Start-and runway
05/23	2424 m × 46 m asphalt

The Wattisham Airfield (also Wattisham Flying Station ) is a military airfield of the British Army east of the village of Wattisham in the county of Suffolk , England . As the main base for the Apache AH1 combat helicopter, it is the largest British Army Aviation airfield. Prince Harry was stationed here from the beginning of 2012 for several years as an Apache gunner.

history

RAF Wattisham

Construction of the airfield began in the course of upgrading in the run-up to the Second World War , and the Royal Air Force Station Wattisham ( RAF Wattisham for short ) was opened on April 5, 1939. When the war broke out, there were two squadrons, the 107th and 110th Squadron , equipped with Blenheim bombers. On September 4, 1939, just 29 hours after Great Britain declared war on Germany, the RAF Bomber Command's first bombing raid on the German Reich began from Wattisham, targeting the Wilhelmshaven naval base . In early 1942, the RAF stationed Beaufighters here before the station was handed over to the United States Army Air Forces in October .

P-51, Wattisham, 1944/1945

The base was initially expanded to operate heavy bombers, including the construction of concrete runways. However, three squadrons of escort fighters were stationed here from May 1944 to November 1945. They formed the 479th Fighter Group which was initially equipped with P-38 and from September 1944 with P-51 . A machine of the 479th was the first Allied machine to be involved in an aerial battle with a German jet fighter on July 29, 1944 , and on April 25, 1945, it also scored the last kill against the Luftwaffe .

After the war, the RAF took over the station again and expanded it in 1949. From 1950 RAF Wattisham became the base of fighter planes again, the night fighter version of the first British jet fighter Meteor NF11 of the 152nd Squadron lay here. These were replaced in 1954 by two squadrons of all-weather Hunter aircraft, which in turn gave way to the Mach 2 fast Lightnings in 1960 . The last RAF aircraft type that was stationed in RAF Wattisham was the Phantom from 1974 , it was among other things in service with the 74th Squadron . With their decommissioning shortly after the end of the Cold War , flight operations in Wattisham as an RAF station ended in October 1992.

Wattisham Airfield

In March 1993 the British Army took over the facility. Wattisham was the new stationing place of two Army Air Corps regiments that were previously part of the British Army of the Rhine in Westphalia ( Soest and Detmold ). The 22nd Squadron of the RAF maintained a branch here between 1995 and August 2015 . Their 'B' flight usually had two Sea King HAR3A SAR helicopters ready.

Todays use

Since the mid-1990s, the base has been home to the 3rd and 4th Regiments of the Army Air Corps , each of which was initially assigned three Apache squadrons. As part of a restructuring, one of the latter's squadrons, the 654th Squadron , was deactivated in July 2014.

There are also a few other non-flying units of the Army.

See also

• List of Royal Air Force bases

Web links

Commons : RAF Wattisham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Army Air Corps Webpage (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ipswich Star, August 15, 2015  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.