Nordholz Naval Airbase (german: Fliegerhorst Nordholz) is a German Naval Air base located near the town of

Nordholz Nordholz is a village and a former municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Wurster Nordseeküste. It is situated approximately 25 km north of Bremerhaven, and 12 ...

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 ...

, 25 km north of

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

, and 12 km southwest of

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

. It is the home of Naval Air Command ( Marinefliegerkommando), with the Naval Air Wing 3 (Marinefliegergeschwader 3) and Naval Air Wing 5 (Marinefliegergeschwader 5), equipped with the

P-3C Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner.Sea-Airport Cuxhaven/Nordholz''.

History

Nordholz Naval Airbase is one of the oldest airports in Germany, dating to 17 December 1912. Construction of the airport installations started a year later and was finished in 1914. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Nordholz served as the principal

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

base for the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

. The first Zeppelin L 3 landing on 2 September 1914 marked the beginning of flight operations. A month later, the Marine-Luftschiff-Abteilung moved from Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel Airport to Nordholz, with the first anti-aircraft batteries arriving four days later on 18 October. On 25 December the base was one of the targets of the Cuxhaven Raid. German airships started bombing raids on Britain in 1915, initially using German Army

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

s; in June, 1915, however, German Navy Zeppelins based at Nordholz began attacks on London. Raids against various places in Britain continued until 1918. On June 23, 1919, Six Zeppelins (LZ 46, LZ 79, LZ 91, LZ103, LZ 110, and LZ 111) were destroyed at Nordholz Airbase by their own crews in order to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. According to the terms of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, all airport installations were dismantled after the war in 1919.

Luftwaffe use

Flying returned to Nordholz in 1938, when 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 ...

decided to rebuild the airfield. At the outbreak of

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 opposing ...

the

Jagdgeschwader 77 ''Jagdgeschwader'' 77 (JG 77) ''Herz As'' ("Ace of Hearts") was a Luftwaffe fighter wing during World War II. It served in all the German theaters of war, from Western Europe to the Eastern Front, and from the high north in Norway to the Mediterr ...

''Herz As'' (ace of hearts) fighter wing stationed Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters at the airfield. These were supplemented by several groups of JG 1, tasked with defending the North Sea shores against British

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) an ...

(RAF) attacks. During the

occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

Kampfgruppe 100 ''Kampfgruppe'' 100 (KGr 100) was a specialist unit of the Luftwaffe during the early stages of World War II. It is best known as the first unit to use the "pathfinder" concept, with its aircraft being equipped with the latest radio navigation ai ...

''Wiking'' flew attacks from Nordholz with their Heinkel He 111 medium bombers, before its enlargement into

KG 100 ''Kampfgeschwader'' 100 (KG 100) was a ''Luftwaffe'' medium and heavy bomber wing of World War II and the first military aviation unit to use a precision-guided munition (the Fritz X anti-ship glide bomb) in combat to sink a warship (the Ital ...

. Between 1941 and 1943 Nordholz was not used, but the Luftwaffe returned in March 1943, as 3. ''Staffel''/

JG 54 ''Jagdgeschwader'' 54 (JG 54) was a Luftwaffe fighter wing during the Second World War. JG 54 flew most of its missions on the Eastern Front where it claimed more than 9,600 aircraft shot down. It was the second-highest scoring wing in the Luftw ...

''Grünherz'' moved to Nordholz. 3./

JG 26 ''Jagdgeschwader'' 26 (JG 26) ''Schlageter'' was a German fighter-wing of World War II. It was named after Albert Leo Schlageter, a World War I veteran, Freikorps member, and posthumous Nazi martyr, arrested and executed by the French for ...

''Schlageter'' followed in June and 2./ JG 11 in August. All units, flying Bf 109F and -G day fighters stayed only a few weeks in northern Germany, before moving to the Eastern Front or along the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. The base's role changed in October 1943 when it was turned into a

night fighter A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...

base with 7./

NJG 3 ''Nachtjagdgeschwader'' 3 (NJG 3) was a Luftwaffe night fighter-wing of World War II. NJG 3 was formed on 29 September 1941 in Stade from Stab./Zerstörergeschwader 26. Commanding officers ''Geschwaderkommodore'' *Major Johann Schalk, 29 March ...

moved from Stade to Nordholz. At the end of the war, between January and April 1945, Nordholz had the honor of hosting the Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet rocket-powered fighter aircraft coming from parts of 2./

JG 400 Jagdgeschwader 400 (JG 400) was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. JG 400 was formed on 1 February 1944 in Brandis with '' Stab'' only for the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, as the only military aviation unit of any size in history ...

Postwar use

406th Fighter Group P-47 Thunderbolts June 1945

The airfield was occupied by U.S. forces on 16 May 1945 as part of the

American Zone of Occupation Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Fran ...

in the Bremen area, an enclave surrounded by the British zone. The

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

moved into the airfield on 5 June and it served as home for

P-47 Thunderbolts The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bomb ...

of 86th Fighter Group 512th and 513th Fighter Squadrons, flying air defense missions from the base over the Bremen area. Initially given the designation of Advanced Landing Ground "R-56", it was renamed Army Air Force Station Nordholtz, or simply Nordholz Air Base. After reducing the boundary of the American enclave to the borders of the State of Bremen in 1947 the airfield, located in

, was handed over to the RAF, who began dismantling the airport installations and destroying the three concrete runways.

NATO use

Situated to the north of Bremen city, Marinefliegerhorst (Naval Air Station) Nordholz is the home of the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

's Marinefliegergeschwader 3 "Graf Zeppelin". Named in honour of Germany's pioneer of lighter than air airships,

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...

, the MFG 3 operates both the service's long range maritime patrol and shipborne helicopter fleets. Additionally, MFG 3 also flies the Dornier Do.228 environmental patrol aircraft which belong to the Department of Transport. The slogan "fliegen wo die Flotte fährt" (to fly where the fleet sails) is taken seriously by this unit. In 1959 construction of the current airbase began. This time a single runway airfield was constructed according to

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 ...

standards, which was to serve as a Naval Air Station. Building ended in 1962, with the first parts of MFG 2 arriving in July. On 26 April 1963 the airfield was officially put into service, though the usability of the base was still limited. A year later the subhunting component of MFG 2 moved from Westerland on

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

to Nordholz. In 1965 the airfield was officially handed over to the planning staffs of MFG 3. Since 1966, the

Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic Breguet or Bréguet may refer to: * Breguet (watch), watch manufacturer **Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), Swiss watchmaker **Louis-François-Clement Breguet (1804–1883), French physicist, watchmaker, electrical and telegraph work * Bréguet ...

has been the German Navy's anti submarine warfare and long range maritime patrol asset. The type replaced the British supplied

Fairey Gannet The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed for the Royal Navy, being the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine both the search an ...

s used for a few years during the 1960s. The Atlantic is unique in that it has been designed for this mission specifically from scratch. The other Western types with the same mission, the American P-3 Orion and the British

Nimrod Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...

, found their origins in respectively the Electra and

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

civil transports. A total of 20, excluding a non-flying prototype, were delivered to MFG 3 during 1966 and 1967. MFG 3 was left as the only unit at Nordholz, when the final two Noratlas of "Passon" left the airbase in 1981. The civil airgroup provided aerial targets over the North and

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 ...

since 1964. Nordholz was used for several Cold War NATO deployments of

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

/ Air National Guard units during the annual " Reforger" exercises. Out of the 20 Atlantics, five were converted during 1969 and 1970 into signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft, specialised in electronic reconnaissance of hostile radar systems and communications of what used to be the Eastern Bloc. Under the code name of Peace Peek, the conversions were done by E-systems in the United States. Today, three of these machines survive, among them 61+06 depicted left. One of these has already been scrapped, the other has been broken up for spares. They can easily be distinguished by their differing radome under the fuselage. The SIGINT machines proved especially useful during the NATO Kosovo operations of 1999. It may be that the SIGINT Atlantics will be replaced with a variant of the

Northrop-Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. The ...

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

, if funds can be found. Out of the 15 standard Atlantics, only eight survived. One was lost in a crash in April 1978, the others have already been scrapped or relegated to ground instructional duties. Nevertheless, the type was kept busy until just a few years ago. From early 2002 a detachment of Atlantics flew lengthy patrol missions from

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, Kenya over the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

looking for suspected shipping in the

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. In September 2003, the detachment, then known as 15. Einsatzgruppe der Marinefliegerflottille (EinsGrpMFlgFltl) or 15th Operations Group Naval Air Forces moved north to

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

. The detachment was terminated in March 2005. Since 2008 the detachment is continued by flying with their new P-3C Orion acquired from the Royal Netherlands Navy. Nordholz currently operates a mix of Lockheed P-3C Orions, Mk88A Sea Lynx, Mk41 Sea King and the Dornier Do 228NG. Some 2,000 civilian and military personnel are based at Nordholz, with the wing providing surveillance & reconnaissance, anti-submarine search, SAR and pollution control operations. However the Mk41 are sanctioned to be replaced in the next few years by

NH90 The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter. It was developed in response to NATO requirements for a battlefield helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. The NH90 ...

helicopters which are currently on order for the German Navy.

Nearby

Just a bit further off is the

Aeronauticum Aeronauticum is the official German maritime aircraft museum – located in Nordholz (close to Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony). The museum has a large collection of aircraft that has been used by the German Marine/Navy, among other places also in the adjace ...

aviation museum.

Nordholz-Spieka recreational airfield

Immediately north of the base is the grass runway of the in .

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at Nordholz-Spieka recreational airfield:

References

External links

fly-navy.de - Nordholz Naval Airbase
* {{Airports in Germany Naval Buildings and structures in Cuxhaven (district) Airports established in 1912 1912 establishments in Germany Luftwaffe bases Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Germany Military installations of Germany Marineflieger Airports in Lower Saxony