Lippstadt Airfield - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the civil airport opened in 1971, see Paderborn Lippstadt Airport
Paderborn Lippstadt Airport
-Facilities:The terminal offers several facilities for travelers. There are mainly travel agencies in the airport. A Restaurant is available, too. There are also shops and car rentals at the airport....

Lippstadt Airfield is a former military airfield located in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, located in the southeast part of Lippstadt

Lippstadt

Lippstadt is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest town within the district of Soest.-Geography:Lippstadt is situated in the Lippe valley, roughly 70 kilometres east of Dortmund and roughly 30 kilometres west of Paderborn...

(Nordrhein-Westfalen); approximately 222 miles west-southwest of Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

.

Fliegerhorst Lippstadt was a pre-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

airfield, opening in 1936. Primarily a support airfield for most of the war, Anti-Aircraft FlaK

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

(AAA) units were assigned and in 1944 it became a night interceptor airfield against Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

bomber attacks on Germany. It was seized by Allied ground forces in early April 1945 during the Western Allied invasion of Germany, being used as a combat airfield by the USAAF until the end of the war. Closed in July 1945, the airfield was later redeveloped into an industrial area.

Origins

Fliegerhorst Lippstadt was opened in 1936, one of the first Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

airfields of the reconstituted German Air Force. It was opened as a fighter base, with Jagdgeschwader 132 (JG 132), being activated at the airfield in March, equipped with the Heinkel He 51

Heinkel He 51

-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Donald, David, ed. Warplanes of the Luftwaffe. London: Aerospace, 1994. ISBN 1-874023-56-5.* Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. "The Cadre Creator...Heinkel's Last Fighting Biplane". Air Enthusiast No. 36, May-August 1988. pp. 11–24. ISSN 0143-5450.*...

, a biplane design which was the first fighter of the reborn Luftwaffe.

In addition to JG 132, many fighter units were organized at Lippstadt in the late 1930s, forming the core units of the wartime Luftwaffe. JG 134, also with He 51s and Arado Ar 68Es, another biplane fighter was formed a week later. In April 1937, Kampfgeschwader 254 (KG 254) was formed with Junkers Ju 52

Junkers Ju 52

The Junkers Ju 52 was a German transport aircraft manufactured from 1932 to 1945. It saw both civilian and military service during the 1930s and 1940s. In a civilian role, it flew with over 12 air carriers including Swissair and Deutsche Luft Hansa as an airliner and freight hauler...

transports, similar to the Douglas C-47; JG 142 in November 1938 with early-model Messerschmitt Bf 109

Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...

C models; Zerstörergeschwader 142 (ZG 142), in January 1939 with Bf 109C and Ds, and ZG 26 in May 1939 also with Bf 109Ds. All of these units were deployed to other airfields around Germany, and most of them took part in the Conquest of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

in September 1939.

Luftwaffe use during World War II

With the Phony War underway after the Polish Conquest, Lippstadt became a training airfield for new Bf 109 pilots (Lehrgeschwader 2). Also a Messerschmitt Bf 110

Messerschmitt Bf 110

The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, was a twin-engine heavy fighter in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. Hermann Göring was a proponent of the Bf 110, and nicknamed it his Eisenseiten...

combat unit aimed at France and the Low Countries (SKG 210) arrived in May 1941, which was used extensively in the Battle of France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

.

As the war moved away from Lippstadt, the base became a training facility for ground support pilots and other Luftwaffe personnel. Henschel Hs 129

Henschel Hs 129

The Henschel Hs 129 was a World War II ground-attack aircraft fielded by the German Luftwaffe. Its nickname, the Panzerknacker , is a deliberate pun—in German, it also means "safe cracker"...

"Tank Killer" aircraft of Schlachtgeschwader 1 (SG 1) were assigned, with the pilots moving mostly to the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union.

With the increasing Allied bomber attacks on Germany in 1944, Lippstadt was assigned to be part of the Defense of the Reich

Defense of the Reich

The Defence of the Reich is the name given to the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe over German occupied Europe and Germany itself during World War II. Its aim was to prevent the destruction of German military and civil industries by the Western Allies...

campaign by the Luftwaffe. Nachtjagdgeschwader 11 (NJG 11), with Bf 109Gs and Focke-Wulf Fw 190

Focke-Wulf Fw 190

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger was a German Second World War single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s. Powered by a radial engine, the 190 had ample power and was able to lift larger loads than its well-known counterpart, the Messerschmitt Bf 109...

As, arrived in August 1944, performing night interceptor operations against Royal Air Force bombers attacking German targets.

The city of Lippstadt

Lippstadt

was a major rail transportation hub for the Deutsche Reichsbahn

Deutsche Reichsbahn

Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...

(DRB), and the railroad marshaling yards were targeted by Eighth Air Force

Eighth Air Force

The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....

bombers on several missions beginning in late 1943. Both the city as well as Fliegerhorst Lippstadt were attacked throughout 1944. The Luftwaffe also moved several Anti Aircraft (FlaK) units into the area for defense. As Allied ground forces moved into Eastern France, Ninth Air Force

Ninth Air Force

The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....

B-26 Marauder

The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....

medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolt

P-47 Thunderbolt

Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug", was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single reciprocating engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to...

fighter bombers made attacks on the airfield. The tactical aircraft used 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and deny the use of the airfield to the Luftwaffe as ground forces advanced into Germany.

Aircraft operations ended in early March 1945 when the use of the airfield by the Luftwaffe became unsustainable due to fuel shortages, lack of equipment, constant air raids and the general retreat of the German forces from the area.

USAAF use

Lead elements of the British XXI Army Group forces from the north and the American First and Ninth Armies from the south met on 1 April 1945 near Lippstadt, closing the Ruhr Pocket

Ruhr Pocket

The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945, near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. For all intents and purposes, it marked the end of major organized resistance on Nazi Germany's Western Front, as more than 300,000 troops were...

and surrounding of the German Army in western Germany. On 7 April the IX Engineer Command 830th Engineer Aviation Battalion moved in and cleared the airfield of mines and wrecked Luftwaffe aircraft. Within a day the airfield was usable for C-47 Skytrain

C-47 Skytrain

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...

transports for combat resupply and casualty evacuation (S&E) use, with the airfield being designated as Advanced Landing Ground

Advanced Landing Ground

Advanced Landing Ground was the term given to the temporary advance airfields constructed by the Allies during World War II in support of the invasion of Europe...

"Y-98 Lippstadt".

By 20 April, enough repairs had been made to allow the field to be used by operational combat units, and the Ninth Air Force

Ninth Air Force

The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....

373d Fighter Group

The 373d Fighter Group is an inactive United States Army Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with First Air Force stationed at Mitchel Field , New York. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945....

moved in with P-47 Thunderbolt

P-47 Thunderbolt

fighter-bombers and supported Allied ground forces rapidly moving east towards the Elbe River in northern and central Germany. Within two weeks combat ended with the German surrender on 7 May.

The airfield remained open until 12 July, serving as a transport field for C-47s, and also as a garrison for the Army of Occupation. Being in the British Zone of Occupation, it was turned over to Royal Army forces and the American units left.

Postwar

Lippstadt was not used as an active RAF base and eventually the destroyed airfield was completely removed. A new street grid was laid out and eventually the land became an industrial area of Lippstadt. Today, the urban area has absorbed the former airfield and no evidence of existence remains. The Luftwaffe station can still be seen by the military style buildings laid out in a pattern indicating a garrison next to the former airfield.