Defense technology department for weapons and ammunition
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Defense Technical Service for Weapons and Ammunition |
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| State level | Federation |
| position | Defense technical department |
| Supervisory authority | BAAINBw |
| founding | 1876 as the Meppen shooting range |
| Headquarters | Meppen |
| Servants | about 1000 |
| Web presence | WTD 91 |
The Wehrtechnische Dienststelle für Waffen und Munition ( WTD 91 ) in Meppen is part of the Equipment, Information Technology and Use (AIN) organizational unit of the Bundeswehr and is subordinate to the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr . It offers services in the field of measurement technology for military purposes. It has the largest shooting range in Europe equipped with measuring instruments and has been used by the Bundeswehr since 1957.
expansion
The shooting range currently covers an area of 19,200 hectares, of which 9,700 hectares are federal property and 9,500 hectares are leased. The length is about 31 kilometers, the width 5 to 7 kilometers. The maximum firing range is 28 kilometers.
history
Facility
With a contract dated February 1, 1877, the Essen-based Friedrich Krupp AG set up a firing range northeast of Meppen near the Hümmling community of Wahn to test range-extended army and naval artillery. Originally, the tests had taken place on their own small shooting range near Dülmen as well as on the state shooting range Berlin-Tegel . However, Krupp sought independence from the War Ministry for the development of his weapons . The then sparsely populated Emsland was ideal for setting up a shooting range; the site was on the railway line from the Ruhr area to Emden.
Krupp initially only acquired a small area around 17 km long and 2 km wide, and additional land was rented for the shooting projects. Local landowners received a so-called “shooting rent” over a contract period of 30 years.
After the Wahner rectory was accidentally hit by a shell in 1916, an expansion of the firing range was planned. With the end of the First World War , however, these plans were no longer implemented.
Operation until 1918
The rail connection to Meppen station was completed in 1878 and an extensive rail network was laid out on the shooting range. Various observation stands, security, telephone and telegraphic facilities were required. An electric crane with a load capacity of 75 t was erected for the fortified firing positions with the gun beds . In addition, workshops, warehouses and powder magazines surrounded by earth walls were built.
On September 5, 1877, shooting began with a 12 cm siege gun . In July 1878 there was an international trial shooting with the demonstration of a 35 cm ring cannon . From August 5th to 8th there was another international comparison shooting with the participation of 97 officers from 18 countries.
Large-caliber ship guns were tested for the Imperial Navy . Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the firing range several times, for example on April 28, 1892. In addition to the testing of guns, attempts were made to fire armor , and mounts were also tested. The 42 cm gamma mortar , which became known during the First World War under the name of Dicke Bertha , was also tested here, as well as a so-called “long-range cannon” of 35.5 cm caliber in 1914 . However, their shells struck due to incorrect calculations in the Wester Moor in the municipality of Saterland . This was followed by further testing of this gun on the Altenwalde firing range. The 21 cm Paris gun was also developed on the firing range from 1916 onwards.
The landmark of the shooting range, the 24 m high water tower , was built around 1910.
Operation after 1918
After the end of the First World War, the former opponents decided to cease operations and until 1923 the firing range was demilitarized under the supervision of the Allies . From 1920 Krupp ran its own farm here , but as early as 1927, on the initiative of the Reichswehr Ministry , a new building program for the later navy began testing new 28 cm guns.
A powerful waterworks was built and ammunition production facilities were built. After a visit by Adolf Hitler on June 10, 1936, it was decided to expand the site. The resettlement of the approximately 1,000 inhabitants of the town of Wahn, which is in the firing line, mainly to Rastdorf and Lathen took place between 1939 and 1943. The town and the Antonius Church, built in 1746, were demolished. The shooting range thus reached a length of over 50 km.
Shooting ceased at the end of 1944 and Canadian forces occupied the area on April 8, 1945.
From 1945
The property was again completely demilitarized in the first post-war years, the facilities were dismantled or destroyed and the buildings that were preserved were used by civilian businesses. Most of the site was released for agricultural use by the British occupying forces at the end of the 1950s , and a closed area was used by the Royal Air Force as a bomb dropping area. Because of the construction of the Dortmund-Ems Canal , a section of the Meppen-Haselünner Railway was relocated over the area of the shooting range in 1954 .
Use by the Bundeswehr
The Ministry of Defense decided on July 3, 1957 to use the facility again as a firing range and the Meppen test site for weapons and ammunition was established . On August 1, 1957, the Federal Republic of Germany acquired the almost 10,000 hectare property and the staff of the Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement moved in. In 1962 the name was changed to Test Center 91 of the Bundeswehr, and in 1987 it became Wehrtechnische Dienststelle 91. In the last few decades, the test facility has been extensively expanded. The Bettungsstraße 1800 was built here lies the shooting line. Among other things, several main fire positions, covered fire positions, individual fire positions, a steep-angle fire system, earth-walled fire positions and material firing positions were created. Blasting sites, an underwater sprinkler system and a detonator pond for testing proximity detonators were set up, targets and bomb-throwing areas were set up. Various measuring devices such as B. sound measurement circuits , cinema theodolite and photo theodolite , radar technology etc. were used. An ammunition arsenal has workshops for filling, testing and dismantling ammunition. The firing range also includes an air base with a helicopter landing pad.
Quality management was introduced in 2000 and the department was certified according to ISO 9001 .
In 2009, the specialist center for explosives of the WTD 91 took over the explosive-related tasks of the Defense Science Institute for Materials, Explosives and Operating Materials (WiWEB) , which were previously located in the municipality of Swisttal near Bonn .
The Airbus Helicopters company carried out missile tests on the training ground on behalf of the German armed forces during the drought in the European summer of 2018 . This caused a major fire in which over 12 square kilometers of moorland burned in September 2018. At times, over 1,500 firefighters and members of the technical relief organization were on duty every day to fight fires.
tasks
At the Meppen firing range, weapons and weapon systems, ammunition, guided missiles, drones, armor, protective devices and many other types of technical equipment are tested for the army, air force and navy. In the areas of ballistics , acoustics , optronics and meteorology , the WTD 91 has the sole expertise in the armaments sector of the Bundeswehr. Companies in the arms industry can also test materials and equipment in Meppen.
The Panzerkampfwagen Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 as well as the Panzerhaubitze 2000 were subjected to extensive tests here.
Others
In 1979, part of the site and the anti-aircraft guns there were used as a set for the ZDF television film Luftwaffehelfer, which was first broadcast in 1980 .
Protected areas
Parts of the shooting range are designated as nature reserves “ Tinner Dose-Sprakeler Heide ”, “ Im Leiken ”, “ Windelberg ” and “ Steinberg ”. In addition, several landscape protection areas lie within the shooting range or extend into it.
literature
- Waffen-Arsenal Volume 130: 500 Years of German Giant Cannons
- Bundeswehr, WTD 91 Meppen: 125 years of the Meppen shooting range
- Hans Altmeppen-Többen: The history of the Krupp shooting range and the military technical department in Meppen. Goldschmidt-Druck, Werlte 1988, ISBN 3-927099-06-6 .
Web links
- The Meppen shooting range. In: relict.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019 .
- Vehicles on the Meppen shooting range. In: hartziel.de. Retrieved October 22, 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Portrait of the WTD 91st Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement, April 22, 2008, accessed on May 5, 2010 .
- ↑ Meppen shooting range. (PDF; 1.9 MB) Baedeker, accessed on April 5, 2013 .
- ^ Christian Gehrs: Dorf Wahn. (No longer available online.) Meppener Tagespost, February 22, 2008, archived from the original on September 3, 2014 ; Retrieved April 16, 2013 . 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.
- ↑ Old village center Wahn. District archive Emsland, accessed on April 16, 2013 .
- ↑ Karsten Krogmann: Search for the missing village. Nordwest-Zeitung online, January 18, 2012, accessed April 5, 2013 .
- ^ From the history of the WTD 91st Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr, August 30, 2012, accessed on April 16, 2013 .
- ↑ The date of the Wiweb move from Heimerzheim to Meppen has been set. General-Anzeiger Bonn, November 21, 2008, accessed on November 8, 2016 .
- ^ Tasks of the WTD 91st Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr, August 30, 2012, accessed on April 16, 2013 .
- ↑ Dirk Hellmers: Exercises on the Meppen shooting range - gunfire could still be heard in Papenburg. Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, February 7, 2012, accessed on October 14, 2015 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 44 ′ 34.6 " N , 7 ° 19 ′ 26.8" E