Mendig Air Base

Mendig Air Base
Heeresflugplatz Mendig
Advanced Landing Ground Y-62
IATA: none – ICAO: ETHM
Summary
Airport type Military
Owner Federal Ministry of Defence
Operator German Army
Location Mendig
Built 1930s
In use 1930s-2008
Occupants German Army Aviators School (Closed)
Elevation AMSL 597 ft / 182 m
Coordinates 50°21′55″N 07°18′45″E / 50.36528°N 7.31250°E / 50.36528; 7.31250
Map
Mendig Air Base
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
08/26 5,342 1,628 Asphalt

Mendig Air Base (German: "Heeresflugplatz Mendig ") is a former military airfield located southeast of the city of Mendig, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Until 2007, it was the home of the German Army Aviators School, equipped with seven CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. The airfield was closed on 31 December 2007 and the last personnel moved out on 30 June 2008.

History

Niedermendig Airfield (Fliegerhorst Niedermendig) was opened as a Luftwaffe airfield in 1938. Its prewar use is undetermined. After the breakout of World War II, Zerstörergeschwader 26 (ZG 26), a Messerschmitt Bf 110 unit used in the Battle of France was assigned in May 1940. In September 1944, Aufklärungsgruppe 123 (Scouting Group 123), equipped with Focke-Wulf Fw 189As used the airfield to monitor the advancing Allied armies moving east from France.[1]

American Army units moved into the Mendig area in early March 1945 as part of the Western Allied invasion of Germany and the airfield was attacked by Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauder medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers to deny the retreating German forces use of the facility. The airfield was taken about 14 March. Combat engineers from IX Engineer command moved in with the 830th Engineering Aviation Battalion arriving on 10 March 1945, to repair the field for use by combat aircraft. The engineers laid down a 5000' Pierced Steel Planking all-weather runway over the bomb-cratered concrete runway, and performed minimal repairs to the facility to make it operational. On 17 March, the airfield was declared ready for Allied use and was designated as Advanced Landing Ground "Y-62 Niedermendig".[2]

Once repaired, the Ninth Air Force 36th Fighter Group moved in, the first being the 474th Fighter Group, flying P-47 Thunderbolts from the field from late March until early April. The Thunderbolts attacked German army units, bridges and other ground targets of opportunity throughout Germany. When the 36th moved out on 8 April, Niedermendig was used for combat resupply and casualty evacuation by C-47 Skytrain transports until the end of the war in May.[3][4]

With the end of the war, Niedermendig Airfield was closed on 11 May 1945. The ground station was taken over by Army units as part of the occupation force.[5] United States Army forces moved out of Niedermendig in the late summer of 1945, as French forces moved into the Rhineland as part of their occupation zone of Germany.

On 7 January 1957, the reconstituted German Army Aviation Corps took over Niedermendig air base from the French Armed Forces and re-established a German military presence on the facility. Dornier Do 27 light training aircraft were used for pilot training at the airfield. On 9 March 1959, SA3 18 Alouette II Helicopters arrived at the airfield. For more than 40 years, this helicopter was to be the training helicopter of the German Army Aviation Corps. The first German Army Aviators School (Heeresfliegerwaffenschule) was founded in Niedermendig on 1 July 1959. Its first commanding officer was Colonel Kuno Ebeling.

The Air Base was used for training German Army helicopter pilots almost 50 years, before being closed in 2008.

Current use

After the military drew out in 2008, the airfield was converted to civilian use, under the ICAO code EDRE. It is home to an aeroclub Sportfluggruppe Mendig e.V., and serves as the setting for several automobile-related television and film recordings, examples are DSF-Motor, Kabel 1 - Abenteuer Auto, RTL2 - Grip, VOX Automobil or SWR Rasthaus.

The field's former MBB Bo105 hangars at the north-west side now host aircraft builder Roland Aircraft.

Since 2015 the airfield is also the new home of the rock festival Rock am Ring.

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. ↑ The Luftwaffe, 1933-45
  2. ↑ IX Engineering Command ETO Airfields General Construction Information
  3. ↑ Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
  4. ↑ Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
  5. ↑ Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
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