Peenemünde Airfield is an airfield along the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
north of
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the '' Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...
, Germany. Today round trips in light aircraft take place from Peenemünde Airfield. Bus tours are also available, on which one can visit the former shelters of the NVA and the remnants of the
V-1 flying bomb facilities
To carry out the planned V-1 "flying bomb" attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications.
The Allies became aware ...
. Because of its long runway the airfield Peenemünde is also a location for
flight school
Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills.
Flight training can be conducted under a str ...
s.
History
On April 2, 1936, the
Reich Air Ministry
The Ministry of Aviation (german: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse ...
paid to the town of
Wolgast
Wolgast (; csb, Wòłogòszcz) is a town in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the bank of the river (or strait) Peenestrom, vis-a-vis the island of Usedom on the Baltic coast that can ...
[
] for the whole Northern peninsula of Usedom.
The airfield began service on 1 April 1938, and on the same date, the Air Ministry officially separated Peenemünde-West from the joint command that included the adjacent Army Research Center
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the '' Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...
.
[
As ''Werk West'', the ]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 ...
Test Site (german: Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe)[
] and under control from the central ''Erprobungsstelle Rechlin'' facility inland, the Peenemünde-West coastal facility was used for testing experimental aircraft (''Erprobungsflugzeug'') such as the Heinkel He 176
The Heinkel He 176 was a German rocket-powered aircraft. It was the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fueled rocket, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls. It was a private ...
(flown at Peenemünde on June 20, 1939) and the Messerschmitt Me 163
The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft primarily designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It is the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft in history as well as ...
rocket-powered fighter (code name
A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial ...
d 'Peenemünde 30' by British intelligence – the '30' referring to the object's measured wingspan in feet). At the northeast edge of the concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse construction aggregate, aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after wa ...
airfield was a launch ramp for testing the V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...
and on which, in 1943, RAF officer Constance Babington Smith
Constance Babington Smith MBE, FRSL (15 October 1912 – 31 July 2000) was a British journalist and writer, but is probably best known for her wartime work in imagery intelligence.
Early life
Constance Babington Smith was born on 15 Octo ...
, working at RAF Medmenham
RAF Medmenham is a former Royal Air Force station based at Danesfield House near Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. Activities there specialised in photographic intelligence, and it was once the home of the RAF Intelligence Branch. Durin ...
, detected a small winged aircraft ('Peenemünde 20') while viewing an Allied reconnaissance photograph.[By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the V2.
] The airfield was also used for take-off of Heinkel He 111
The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a " wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after ...
for initial air-launch testing of V-1s. V-1 launch crew training was at the nearby resort of Zempin
Zempin is a German municipality and the smallest seaside resort on Usedom island. It lies between Zinnowitz and Koserow on the narrowest part of the island, between the Baltic Sea and the ''Achterwasser'', a bay of the Oder Lagoon.
Zempin lies o ...
, and after the August 1943 Operation ''Hydra'' bombing of the area, V-1 flight testing was moved to Brüsterort.[ Peenemünde West also developed World War II night-navigation and radar systems (Dr. ]Johannes Plendl
Johannes "Hans" Plendl (6 December 1900 – 10 May 1991), German radar pioneer, was the scientist whose airplane navigation inventions made possible the early German bombing successes in World War II.
Early life
Plendl was born in 1900 in Munich ...
). After the 2nd Belorussian Front
The 2nd Belorussian Front ( Russian: Второй Белорусский фронт, alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front) was a military formation, of Army group size, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Soviet army g ...
under General Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Konstantinovich (Xaverevich) Rokossovsky (Russian language, Russian: Константин Константинович Рокоссовский; pl, Konstanty Rokossowski; 21 December 1896 – 3 August 1968) was a Soviet Union, Sov ...
captured the Swinemünde port and Usedom
Usedom (german: Usedom , pl, Uznam ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea.
It is north of the Szczec ...
island on May 5, 1945, the airfield became part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
.
Post-war
In 1956, the airfield received a new 2,465 metre-long concrete runway, which is oriented in a northwesterly direction and allows the operation of modern military jet planes. A further landmark is the collection of radio beacon
In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction-finding equipment to find relative bearing. But instead of employing visible light, radio beacons transmit electromagn ...
s at the northwest end, which were built on artificial islands in the sea. In 1961, the airfield was transferred to the National People's Army
The National People's Army (german: Nationale Volksarmee, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990.
The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) an ...
(NVA), which used it until 1990. Main unit was the Jagdfliegergeschwader 9 (JG-9) (English: Fighter Wing 9) with MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...
and later MiG-23
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generati ...
in different versions. From 1972 the Zieldarstellungskette 33 (ZDK-33) (roughly: Target Towing Flight 33) was also stationed at Peenemünde airfield. It was subordinated to the JG-9 and used Il-28 and later Aero L-39
The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. It is the most widely used jet trainer in the world; in addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also f ...
to serve the anti-aircraft firing ranges Zingst
Zingst ( Polabian ''Sgoni'') is the easternmost portion of the three-part Fischland-Darß-Zingst Peninsula, located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, between the cities of Rostock and Stralsund on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.
T ...
and Ueckermünde
Ueckermünde () is a seaport town in northeast Germany, located in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, Western Pomerania, near Germany's border with Poland's Police County.
Ueckermünde has a long and varied history, going back to its foundi ...
. After 1990, the airfield was used among other things as parking area of former military vehicles of the NVA. From Summer 2010, a high-performance jet trainer
A jet trainer is a jet aircraft for use as a trainer, whether for basic or advanced flight training. Jet trainers are either custom designs or modifications of existing aircraft. With the introduction of military jet-powered aircraft towards the e ...
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...
Aero L-39
The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. It is the most widely used jet trainer in the world; in addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also f ...
Albatros of the former National People's Army
The National People's Army (german: Nationale Volksarmee, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990.
The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) an ...
(NVA) is back on Peenemünde Airfield.Aero L-39 Albatros on Peenemünde
/ref>
See also
*
*
Website of the Airfield (German)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peenemunde Airfield
*Airfield
Buildings and structures in Vorpommern-Greifswald
Research and development in Nazi Germany
V-1 flying bomb facilities
German V-2 rocket facilities
World War II sites in Germany
World War II sites of Nazi Germany
Government buildings completed in 1938
Military airbases established in 1938
1938 establishments in Germany
20th century in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Luftstreitkräfte airbases
Airports in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania