Diepholz Air Base is a

German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...

military air base, located 3.3 km southwest of

Diepholz Diepholz (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Deefholt'') is a town and capital of the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the rivers Hunte and Lohne, approximately 45 km northeast of Osnabrück, and 60 km southwest of ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is a joint-use civil-military facility, also being a civil airport. Between 1968 and 1996, the

Diepholz Airfield Circuit The Diepholz Airfield Circuit was an auto racing circuit in the south-west of the town of Diepholz, Germany. It was a temporary circuit on a military airfield, which is still in use by the German military today. The full length of the runway was ...

, a temporary motorsports venue, was regularly laid out on the airfield.

Overview

Diepholz Air Base was home of 2nd Flying Group of

Helicopter Transport Wing 64 Helicopter Transport Wing 64 (german: Hubschraubertransportgeschwader 64) was a Wing (military aviation unit), wing of the German Air Force (''Luftwaffe''). The wing was founded in 1966 and at the time of its disbanding based at RAF Ahlhorn, Ah ...

from 1968 to 1971. It also housed various logistical units of the German Air Force.

History

The airfield was originally opened in 1936 for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it was seized by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in April 1945. After the battle, the base was over by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and designated as Advanced Landing Ground B-114 Diepholz. After the war, the airfield was closed. In 1957, the base was returned to the control of the

and became a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

Air Base. In October 2011, the German

Federal Ministry of Defence The Federal Ministry of Defence (german: Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, ), abbreviated BMVg, is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at ...

announced a reorganisation/reduction of the

German Armed Forces The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

. As a consequence, the number of personnel stationed at Diepholz Air Base was reduced from 1,020 to 110, with the airbase facilities being only used as a material storage site.Quoted from , PDF-file "Die Stationierung der Bundeswehr in Deutschland", passim

Racing circuit

German racing suffered from a lack of permanent circuits after the war, and airfield venues sprang up to bolster events at the Nürburgring and Hockenheim. Diepholz was among the most popular and long-lasting. In 1968, the local motorsport-club AMC Diepholz organized the first "ADAC-Flugplatzrennen Diepholz" on the airfield. The circuit utilised the airfield runways linked by fast chicanes, lined by water-filled oil barrels and tyre stacks. These races soon gathered momentum and in 1972 Diepholz was added to the prestigious DRM touring car championship. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, tin-top stars such as Frank Gardner, Hans Heyer, Toine Hezemans, Helmut Kelleners, Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek battled it out in BMWs, Porsches and Fords. The airfield circuit was discontinued after 1998 due to the completion of a new permanent circuit, the

Motorsport Arena Oschersleben The Motorsport Arena Oschersleben is a long race track with a width of and elevation changes of . The circuit is located in Oschersleben, Börde where is approximately from Magdeburg), Germany. Its fairly flat contours create a smooth, fast ci ...

References

External links

Military Airfield Directory Diepholz Airbase

* {{Airports in Germany Airports in Lower Saxony Luftwaffe bases Airports established in 1936 Bases of the German Air Force

Overview

History

Racing circuit

References

Further reading

External links