Peenemünde Airfield

Peenemünde Airfield
AA5 Traveller at Peenemünde airfield
IATA: PEF ICAO: EDCP
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Usedomer Fluggesellschaft mbH
Location	Usedom
Elevation AMSL	7 ft / 2 m
Coordinates	54°09′28″N 013°46′22″E / 54.15778°N 13.77278°E / 54.15778; 13.77278Coordinates: 54°09′28″N 013°46′22″E / 54.15778°N 13.77278°E / 54.15778; 13.77278
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 13T/31T 7,874 2,400 Concrete

Peenemünde Airfield (IATA: PEF, ICAO: EDCP) is an airfield along the Baltic Sea north of Peenemünde, Germany. Today round trips in light aircraft take place from Peenemünde Airfield. Bus tours are also available, on which one can visit the former shelters of the NVA and the remnants of the V-1 flying bomb facilities. Because of its long runway the airfield Peenemünde is also a location for flight schools.

On April 2, 1936, the Reich Air Ministry paid 750,000 German Reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the whole Northern peninsula of Usedom. The airfield began service on 1 April 1938, and on the same date, the Air Ministry officially separated Peenemünde-West from the joint command that included the adjacent Army Research Center Peenemünde.

As Werk West, the Luftwaffe Test Site (German: ) and under control from the central Erprobungsstelle Rechlin facility inland, the Peenemünde-West coastal facility was used for testing experimental aircraft (Erprobungsflugzeug) such as the Heinkel He 176 (flown at Peenemünde on June 20, 1939) and the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered fighter (code named 'Peenemünde 30' by British intelligence - the '30' referring to the object's measured wingspan in feet). At the northeast edge of the concrete airfield was a launch ramp for testing the V-1 flying bomb and on which, in 1943, RAF officer Constance Babington Smith, working at RAF Medmenham, detected a small winged aircraft ('Peenemünde 20') while viewing an Allied reconnaissance photograph. The airfield was also used for take-off of Heinkel He 111 for initial air-launch testing of V-1s. V-1 launch crew training was at the nearby resort of Zempin, and after the August 1943 Operation Hydra bombing of the area, V-1 flight testing was moved to Brüsterort. Peenemünde West also developed World War II night-navigation and radar systems (Dr. Johannes Plendl). After the 2nd Belorussian Front under General Konstantin Rokossovsky captured the Swinemünde port and Usedom island on May 5, 1945, the airfield became part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation.