Eschborn Airfield (Fliegerhorst Eschborn) is an abandoned military airfield in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

located approximately 10 km northwest of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

(Hessen) and 435 km southwest of

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. The airfield was built by 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-Fliegerabt ...

and opened in the early 1940s. Its primary use was as an interceptor fighter airfield during the

Defense of the Reich The Defence of the Reich (german: Reichsverteidigung) is the name given to the military strategy, strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany over German-occupied Europe and Germany during World War II. Its aim w ...

campaign. In 1945 it was seized by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

and was used as a combat airfield by

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

during the

Western Allied invasion of Germany The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine, a series of offen ...

. After the war the airfield became part of "Camp Eschborn", one of the

facilities in the Frankfurt Area. It was closed in 1992 as part of the drawdown of American forces in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

after the Cold War ended. Today the area is being redeveloped as an industrial site.

History

German use during World War II

Eschborn Airfield was built by the Luftwaffe about 1942 to provide air defense of the

area from Allied bomber attacks. A 1,600m concrete runway, aligned 12/30 was laid down, along with taxiways, dispersal aircraft hardstands, a support area and other buildings. Jagdgeschwader 106 (JG 106), a

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' ("Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, th ...

A day interceptor fighter unit was assigned to the airfield in March 1943. In August 1943, JG 106 was moved to

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

and replaced by JG 27, a

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

G unit that was being withdrawn from

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

. JG 27 was based at Eschborn until September 1944. Other Luftwaffe day interceptor units assigned to Eschborn were JG 53 (March–May 1944); JG 301 (May–June 1944) and JG 2 (September 1944), flying mostly Bf 109Gs, or Fw 190As (JG 2). The Luftwaffe, 1933-45
/ref> In response to the interceptor attacks on Eighth Air Force heavy bomber formations, Eschborn was attacked in 1944 by

XIII Fighter Command The XIII Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces formation. It was last assigned to Thirteenth Air Force, based at Manila, Luzon, Philippines. It was inactivated on 15 March 1946. History XIII Fighter Command was a World War II comm ...

P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...

escort fighters that would drop down on the airfield and perform fighter sweeps over targets of opportunity. As Allied ground forces moved east into Central France, the airfield came within range of

air units, which attacked the airfield with

B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in ...

medium bombers and

P-47 Thunderbolt 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-bombe ...

s. These attacks would take place when

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces ...

heavy bombers (

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theate ...

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models d ...

s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base, with the attacks being timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down and unable to attack the heavy bombers.

USAAF use

United States Third Army The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf Wa ...

units moved into the Frankfurt area during mid-March 1945, and ground forces captured Eschborn Airfield about 25 March. On 30 March, combat engineers from IX Engineer command 832d and 825th Engineering Aviation Battalions arrived to make the airfield operational for American aircraft. A

Pierced Steel Planking Marston Mat, more properly called pierced (or perforated) steel planking (PSP), is standardized, perforated steel matting material developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the r ...

runway was laid down over the damaged concrete runway and enough repairs were made to make the airfield operational by early April. The airfield was designated as Advanced Landing Ground "Y-74 Frankfurt/Eschborn" and immediately put to use as a transport resupply and casualty (S&E) evacuation airfield.

C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained ...

transports used the airfield frequently. On 7 April, Ninth Air Force

s arrived at Eschborn. The

371st Fighter Group 371st may refer to: * 371st Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 371st Engineer Construction Battalion or 371st Engineer Battalion, activated as a Special Service Regiment in the United States Army in 1944 * 371st Fighter G ...

and the

367th Fighter Group 367th may refer to: *367th Fighter Group, later the 133d Operations Group, the flying component of the Minnesota Air National Guard's 133d Airlift Wing *367th Fighter Squadron Inactivated in 1945, then reactivated at Homestead Air Reserve Base in 20 ...

flew combat missions with Thunderbolts until the end of the war in May. The 367th remained at the airfield until mid-July 1945 when the Air Force turned the Eschborn airfield and base over to Army ground forces, which used the facility as an occupation garrison.Maurer, Maurer. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983.

United States Army use

Under Army control in July 1945, for a while Eschborn became a Displaced Persons camp while Europe tried to sort out the masses of people forcefully removed from their home nations during the war. Also, Eschborn remained an

Air Technical Service Command The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

facility until 1947 to process out excess American aircraft and to destroy surrendered Luftwaffe aircraft. The Luftwaffe buildings were repaired and reconstructed, the facility eventually becoming a major Army garrison as part of the Army of Occupation. During the 1950s, as a part of the United States Army NATO facilities in the Frankfurt area, the airfield was closed and Eschborn Airfield became "Camp Eschborn", the home of Army Engineering units. Army forces remained at Eschborn for the next 40 years during the Cold War, being withdrawn in 1992 as part of the general American drawdown of forces in Germany. The facility has been basically abandoned since 1992, and today the ghostly relics of empty buildings, streets and other facilities used by the United States Army during its 50-year use of Eschborn remain. Parts of the former military base are being redeveloped into an industrial estate. The airfield, not used since 1947, remains in part with an abandoned aircraft parking apron and a large Luftwaffe hangar, used for storage by the Army, but now a reminder of the wartime past of Eschborn as a combat airfield by both German and United States forces.

References

External links