Royal Air Force Brüggen, more commonly known as RAF Brüggen, in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station until 15 June 2001. It was situated next to the village of Elmpt, approximately west of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

on the Dutch–German border. The base was named after the village of Brüggen, the nearest rail depot. Construction began in mid-1952, which involved the clearing of forest and draining of marshland. The station became active in 1953 during the rapid expansion of NATO forces in Europe. The main paint shop situated next to the main runway was responsible for the surface finishing of all aircraft, ground equipment and RAF Regiment Rapier missile systems. In 2002, it was handed over to the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and renamed Javelin Barracks.

317 Supply and Transport Column

In 1953, the 317 Supply and Transport Column arrived at RAF Brüggen from Uetersen. This followed the decision to supply all RAF stations in Germany through the

port of Antwerp The port of Antwerp is the port of the city of Antwerp, Belgium. It is located in Flanders, mainly in the province of Antwerp, but also partially in East Flanders. It is a seaport in the heart of Europe accessible to capesize ships. It is Eu ...

. In 1954 the unit was redesignated as a Mechanical Transport Squadron and was responsible for equipping and supplying all RAF stations in Germany and

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The unit remained at Brüggen until 1963, when it was amalgamated into the No. 431 Maintenance Unit RAF which continued to operate until 1993. The demise of 317 MT Squadron marked the end of an era, as it had been on the continent shortly after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

under its previous title of 317 Supply & Transport Column. It had built itself an enviable reputation and following the cessation of hostilities carried out convoys to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In the 1950 Review of the Royal Air Force, the unit was described as the Carter Paterson of the

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

s. Throughout its life, 317 carried out a number of humanitarian operations; the first being medical supplies to

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

. This was followed in 1947 by '' Operation Woodpecker'' in which timber and peat were supplied to the civilian population of northern Germany in one of the coldest winters on record. This was followed by the return of displaced persons and

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

s to their home towns and cities within the British Zone. They were called upon again at the start of the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, roa ...

(''Operation Plain Fare''), and lastly, in the winter of 1962/3, the Squadron took a convoy of fuel trucks to the

oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied pet ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

for heating oil which was delivered to hospitals in Germany during the great freeze when the canals were inoperable.

1954–1998 – Strike/attack role

From 1954–1957 the fighter squadrons at Bruggen were 67, 71E, 112 & 130, equipped initially with

Canadair Sabre The Canadair Sabre is a Jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft built by Canadair under licence from North American Aviation. A variant of the North American F-86 Sabre, it was produced until 1958 and used primarily by the Royal Canadian Air Force ...

F.4s, later re-equipped with the

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...

F.4s. These squadrons were either redeployed or disbanded in 1957 with the arrival of 87 Squadron, equipped with

Gloster Javelin The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s and was the final aircraft design to b ...

FAW.1s. The initial strike capability at RAF Brüggen was provided by the

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...

from the summer of 1957. From 1969 to 1975 the Phantom FGR.2 operated in the strike/attack role and was replaced by the SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 from 9 April 1975. The Jaguars were replaced by the

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

GR.1 beginning on 13 June 1984. With a total of four Tornado GR.1 squadrons at Brüggen and four more at its nearby sister airbase RAF Laarbruch, Brüggen and Laarbruch formed the largest Tornado force in NATO. Hardened Aircraft Shelters were equipped with the U.S. Weapon Storage Security System (WS3), each able to store up to 4 WE.177 tactical nuclear bombs, for delivery by Tornado aircraft.

1984 – Nuclear incident

On 4 September 2007, the

British military The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping e ...

admitted that there had been an accident with a

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

at RAF Brüggen on 2 May 1984. The nuclear weapon fell from a transport truck, as the missile wasn't securely attached to the truck. The weapon was eight times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

in 1945. The casing was

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

ed after the incident, and found to have been undamaged. The six people who were responsible for the accident received a reprimand for their actions in the incident.

1998–2001 – Attack role

Following

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, the RAF announced plans to reduce its presence in the country by half. One major part of this was the reduction of Tornado squadrons in Germany from seven to four, No.9, No.14, No.17 and No.31 squadrons. No.9, No.14 and No.31 squadrons took part in the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, and later operated from Bruggen during NATO's air operations in the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...

, supported by Vickers VC10 tankers. The decision to remove all RAF assets from Germany was taken in 1996. As a result of the Strategic Defence Review No. 17 Squadron disbanded on 31 March 1999 and began the gradual drawdown of the base. No. 14 Sqn relocated to RAF Lossiemouth in January 2001. A formal ceremony on 15 June officially ended a continuous Royal Air Force presence in Germany since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and all of the remaining Tornados had left for RAF Marham by 4 September 2001.

Brüggen squadrons

* No. 9 Squadron RAF from 1 October 1986 until July 2001) – operating Panavia Tornado GR.1, GR.4. *

No. 14 Squadron RAF No. 14 Squadron of the Royal Air Force currently operates the Beechcraft Shadow R1 (a modified Beechcraft Super King Air) in the Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) role from RAF Waddington. The Squadron i ...

– operating: ** Phantom FGR.2 between 1 July 1970 and 30 November 1975 ** SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 between 1 December 1975 and 1 November 1985 ** Panavia Tornado GR.4 from 1 November 1985 * No. 17 Squadron RAF – operating: ** Phantom FGR.2 between 1 September 1970 and 30 January 1976 ** SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 between 1 February 1976 and 1 March 1985 ** Panavia Tornado GR.1 from 1 March 1985–99) * No. 20 Squadron RAF – operating SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 between 1 March 1977 and 30 June 1984 * No. 25 Squadron RAF – operating Bristol Bloodhound missiles * No. 31 Squadron RAF – operating: ** Phantom FGR.2 between 20 July 1971 and 30 June 1976 ** SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 between 30 June 1976 and 1 November 1984 ** Panavia Tornado GR.1 from November 1984 * No. 67 Squadron RAF – operating: **

F.4s between 5 July 1955 and March 1956 **

F.4s between January 1956 and 31 May 1957 * No. 71 Squadron RAF – operating: ** Canadair Sabre F.4s between 7 July 1955 and May 1956 ** Hawker Hunter F.4s between April 1956 and 31 May 1957 * No. 80 Squadron RAF – operating

PR.7 until 30 September 1969 * No. 87 Squadron RAF – operating: **

FAW.1 between August 1957 and January 1961 ** Gloster Javelin FAW.5 between September 1958 and October 1960 ** Gloster Javelin FAW.4 between November 1959 and January 1961 * No. 112 Squadron RAF – operating: **

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland DH100 Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteo ...

FB.5 between July 1953 and February 1954 ** Canadair Sabre F.4s between January 1954 and April 1956 ** Hawker Hunter F.4s between April 1956 and May 1957 * No. 130 Squadron RAF – operating: ** Canadair Sabre F.4s between August 1953 and May 1956 ** Hawker Hunter F.4s between April 1956 and May 1957 * No. 213 Squadron RAF operating English Electric Canberra B(I).6 between 22 August 1957 and 31 December 1969 * No. 37 Squadron RAF Regiment – operating BAC Rapier. * No. 431 Maintenance Unit RAF.

Handover to Army

With the Royal Air Force having no use for site of the former RAF Brüggen, the base was handed over to the

on 28 February 2002 to become Elmpt Station, Javelin Barracks. The 18-hole RAF Brüggen Golf Club became West Rhine Golf Club. Former units * 7th Signal Regiment * 16th Signal Regiment ** Support Squadron ** 207 Signal Squadron ** 230 Signal Squadron ** 255 Signal Squadron * 628 Signal Troop * 1st Military Intelligence Battalion ** HQ Company ** Operations Support Company ** 15 Military Intelligence Company ** 16 Military Intelligence Company

Final closure

The barracks was closed in November 2015 and the site returned to German authorities. Since December 2015 the accommodation units have been used by the German government to house

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

. The area is currently owned by the Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BImA). In 2020 negotiations are under way to sell it to Entwicklungsgesellschaft "Energie- und Gewerbepark Elmpt" mbH (EGE), a company founded in 2016 with the objective of converting of the area into an energy and industry park.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

BBC News – RAF ends 56 years in Germany

from AirSceneUK.org.uk

at GlobalSecurity.org
RAF Brüggen
British Army Of the Rhine – Locations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruggen Military installations established in 1953 Royal Air Force stations in Germany Military installations closed in 2001 Buildings and structures in Viersen (district) Defunct airports in Germany Airports in North Rhine-Westphalia