Lechfeld Airbase
Lechfeld Air Base.svg) Fliegerhorst Lechfeld Advanced Landing Ground R-71 |
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A Luftwaffe IDS Tornado
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
| Owner | Unified Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany | ||||||||||
| Operator | German Air Force | ||||||||||
| Location | Lagerlechfeld, Germany | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,822 ft / 555 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 48°11′10″N 010°51′42″E / 48.18611°N 10.86167°E | ||||||||||
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 ETSL
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Lechfeld Air Base (IATA: RBM, ICAO: ETSL) is a German Air Force (Luftwaffe) base located 1 km east of Lagerlechfeld in Bavaria, about 20 km south of Augsburg on the Bundestrasse 17.
It is the home of Training Division A of the School of Management Assistance, and of 32 Fighter Bomber Wing (Jagdbombergeschwader 32), part of the Luftwaffe's 1st Air Division. The two squadrons based there fly the Panavia Tornado.
In 1912, the German Army's military flight operations started at Lechfeld, but were forbidden after the First World War. Flight operations were resumed in 1934 and a flight school was opened. The Messerschmitt Works at Augsburg used Lagerlechfeld also as a test airfield. On May 22, 1943, at Lechfeld, Adolf Galland made his first flight in the Messerschmitt Me 262, a highly advanced twin engine jet fighter. He told Hermann Goering, "It felt as if angels were pushing." In April 1944 a special Luftwaffe unit began training of operational pilots on the 262. Most of the buildings were destroyed by 1945 after several air attacks.
American Army units moved into the Lagerlechfeld area in early May 1945 during the Western Allied Invasion of Germany and seized the airfield with little or no opposition. Initial reconstruction plans for the base to be used as a United States Army Air Forces field were cancelled after the German Capitulation on 7 May, and the facility was garrisoned by United States Army units, although United States Army Air Forces personnel were sent to the base to evaluate the Messerschmitt aircraft left at the airfield. It was designated as Advanced Landing Ground "R-71"
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