Malmsheim Airfield
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Malmsheim Airfield Flugplatz Malmsheim |
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | military/private | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Renningen, Germany | ||||||||||||||
| Built | 1937 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,500 ft / 450 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 48°47′1″N 8°55′10″E / 48.78361°N 8.91944°E | ||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Malmsheim Airfield is located in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, north-east of the city of Renningen’s borough of Malmsheim. It consists of an air force base with a reserve concrete runway and a glider airfield.
On 13 November 1936, the Luftwaffe announced its intention to build what it purported an emergency landing site. The runways were built, mostly at night, by 1937. Buildings were camouflaged as a farm, the site was connected by a standard gauge railway to the Black Forest Railway’s Renningen station.
During the Battle of France in 1940, Malmsheim was home base to Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88 aircraft. With the beginning of the Russian campaign in 1941, the Luftwaffe halted operations on the airfield and the site was converted into a Prisoner of war camp with POWs working on local farms. In 1944 and 1945, the site was used for military aviation once more, being home to the second group of the 53rd fighter squadron.
After the war, it was used briefly by US forces, then from 31 January 1946, ethnic German refugees (Heimatvertriebene) were accommodated. Initially, 1,500 people were brought to the site, via the railway link. The refugee camp’s designed capacity was 11,000 people. Most of the refugees housed came from the Sudetenland. In 1949, the camp was assigned a new function as a transit station for returning German POWs. It was also used briefly to house displaced persons.
US forces again used the site from 1951. The Bundeswehr, the post-war West German armed forces, took over the site on its foundation in 1955. A planned deployment of German Army Aviation was not realized, nor was the proposed construction of a civilian airport.
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