Celle Air Base

Celle Air Base German: Heeresflugplatz Celle is a military airbase of the German Army. The airfield is situated southwest of the city of Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany. It was opened in 1934 and has been in military use ever since. Today the aerodrome is used by a helicopter training school, a helicopter liaison and reconnaissance squadron and a helicopter maintenance unit utilising the type Bölkow Bo-105.
Until the end of World War II the airfield operated under the name of Fliegerhorst Celle-Wietzenbruch. During Allied occupation it was known as RAF Celle. On 28 July 1967 the base was given the additional name Immelmann-Kaserne.

Location and approach

Celle Air Base is located southwest of the city centre of Celle and northeast of the city centre of Hanover. To the west the Wietzenbruch is situated, a moor-like area named after the river Wietze and the surrounding fen. This geographical feature gave its name to the suburb "Wietzenbruch" directly to the north of the air base. To the east and the south it borders on the railway line Hanover-Hamburg. The field elevation at the reference point, the exact centre of the runway, is above sea level.
Celle Air Base can be approached by way of a connecting road to the Landesstraße 310 which is used as a spur route to the motorways A 7 and A 352. Apart from by motorway, Celle as well as the air base can be approached by federal highways B3, B 191 and B 214. Since 2006 a bus stop called "Wietzenbruch Kaserne" is located in front of the main gate of the base.
Organisationally, the air base is separated into barracks and air field. The entire base is a military security area and completely surrounded by a fence and thus not open to the general public. Admittance to the barracks area is granted to members of the Bundeswehr and Allied forces. In this part administrative, social, sports and medical facilities, and the quarters are situated. The air field is especially fenced in and contains the movement area, aprons and hangars as well as facilities for operating the airfield. Like on civil aerodromes access to this part is granted only for employees working there, crew members and passengers.

History

Early history of aviation around the city of Celle

In 1910 flight trials were undertaken on the Scheuener Heide, a heath north of the river Aller. These trials were carried out not on official but on private initiative by a person named Schlüter. Using an advertisement in the local paper, the population of Celle was invited to watch the spectacle. However, aviation around Celle did not assume any serious forms until the Imperial Navy decided to choose the location for the construction of an airfield in order to enable intermediate stops for flights between Wilhelmshaven and Kiel. The airfield was opened on 3 October 1918 and used extensively until the end of the World War I in November of the same year when news, spread by pilots, of the sailors' revolt and the beginning of the German Revolution reached Celle. This in turn led to revolt within the city of Celle itself on 7 November 1918.
After World War I the airfield was initially abandoned even though some flights took place in the 1920s. The site became more important once the Celle-Wietzenbruch flying school began to use the area as an external landing site in the mid-1930s. Today, part of this former airfield is incorporated into the civilian airfield Celle-Arloh and used for recreational purposes.

Wehrmacht 1933 until 1945

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 prohibited the German Reich to have her own air force. To get around this prohibition, the Nazi Party founded the Deutscher Luftsportverband in 1933 as a disguise to accelerate the building of an air force. Therefore, throughout Germany possible locations for air bases were sought. One of these locations was close to the Celle district of Wietzenbruch. According to official information the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule GmbH would become the airport holder. Ernst Sagebiel a leading architect in air base design was put in charge of the building works.
After exhaustive construction works, during which the boggy terrain was drained by creating several ditches, the flying school entered service in 1934. Due to the boggy terrain the airfield had to be mixed with bitumen a few years later to prevent airplanes sinking in. This made the ground elastic and resulted in the pilots calling the airfield rubber meadow.
On 9 March 1935 Hermann Göring officially announced the existence of a German Air Force and the DLV was not needed any longer. The Luftwaffe was officially declared as being the occupant of the air base and its employees revealed themselves as being members of the armed forces by openly wearing uniforms.
In the course of time, the type of aircraft stationed at Celle became larger and larger and crews were trained on almost all current military aircraft. The extent of the training activities necessitated the construction of external landing strips at Hustedt and Scheuen. The training in blind flight, the precursor of instrument flight, even had to be moved to Wesendorf.
At the beginning of World War II the training school was relocated to Leipzig and Celle Air Base was used by varying units, none of which were stationed there for any long period of time.
Although some production facilities for the Junkers Ju 88 were placed in Hangar V, Celle Air Base played only a secondary role during World War II. This, together with skilful camouflaging of the hangars, prevented the air base from becoming a serious target for Allied tactical or strategic bombing. Contemporary witnesses reported an American fighter plane attacking Hangar V in 1944 until the anti-aircraft fire forced the pilot to abandon his aircraft.
Without having suffered any serious damage the air base was surrendered by a German NCO to the British Army on 11 April 1945. A few days previously, members of the last German unit stationed at Celle Air Base, Flying School A/B 6, had destroyed all remaining aircraft and left the base. Furthermore, a last Allied attack on the airfield on 9 April 1945 had not caused any serious damage to the airfield.

Allied occupation 1945 until 1957

After having been taken over by British forces, it came under the control of the Royal Air Force Germany and was renamed RAF Station Celle.
Under British occupation metal plates were laid on the entire airfield in order to enable the landing of larger aircraft. The airfield retained its secondary role and was mainly used for liaison flights to the United Kingdom. After some flight movements in 1945 and 1946, no flights were recorded in 1947 and the hangars were instead used as storage facilities for furniture and tanks.
With the beginning of the Berlin Airlift in 1948 this, however, changed radically. The Western allies, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, were looking for additional air bases that could be utilised for the airlift. Strategically, Celle offered favourable conditions for supply flights being located at the end of the middle air corridor to Berlin and having the shortest distance to Berlin. Unlike other air bases, Celle was not completely handed over to the United States Air Force but remained under the control of the Royal Air Force even though the aircraft using the airfield were American.
After RAF Fassberg and RAF Wunstorf Celle became the third airfield in the region to serve in the airlift. USAF 317th Troop Carrier Group equipped with Douglas C-54 Skymaster were stationed on the air base at the end of 1948 and transported mostly coal to Berlin. In order to cope with the enormous traffic the airfield was extended, receiving an unusually long rail siding and, for the first time, a runway with an asphalt surface.
At the beginning of the airlift a total of 600 tons of freight were transported into the besieged city which increased to 1000 tons of coal and food each day in the spring of 1949. The American forces were assisted by 5,000 German workers in this undertaking. In order to house them, north of the barracks a huge housing area consisting of Nissen huts was built.
At the same time, Celle residents began to complain about the so-called "Veronikas″, German women attracted to the well paid soldiers. A public appeal by the city of Celle denounced the "women and girls who cause offence and outrage" amongst the population. The public outrage and repeated appeals for morality by local politicians in the local press became well known throughout Germany. Even a Stuttgart-based newspaper published an article about "Celle - an outraged city" on 14 February 1949.
Next to the road leading to Celle Air Base, a monument in memory of the support given by Celle to the Berlin Airlift was erected by the city of Celle in 1988.
Following the end of the Berlin Airlift in 1949, the airfield was again used exclusively by British Forces. Over the years several squadrons were stationed at Royal Air Force Station Celle which since 1950 were equipped with jet engined fighters, the Vampire and Venom.

Unit	Dates	Aircraft	Variant	Notes
No. 2 Squadron RAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIV	Stationed twice
No. 2 Squadron RAF	1946	Supermarine Spitfire	PR.19
No. 4 Squadron RAF	1945	Hawker Typhoon	FR.1B
No. 11 Squadron RAF	1949–1950	de Havilland Mosquito	FB.6
No. 14 Squadron RAF	1949–1950	de Havilland Mosquito	B.35	No. 139 Wing RAF
No. 16 Squadron RAF	1945–1946	Supermarine Spitfire	XIX, XIV and XVI
No. 16 Squadron RAF	1950–1955	de Havilland Vampire	FB.5
No. 16 Squadron RAF	1954–1957	de Havilland Venom	FB.1
No. 41 Squadron RAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIV
No. 93 Squadron RAF	1950–1952	de Havilland Vampire	FB.5
No. 94 Squadron RAF	1950–1954	de Havilland Vampire	FB.5
No. 94 Squadron RAF	1954–1957	de Havilland Venom	FB.1
No. 98 Squadron RAF	1949–1950	De Havilland Mosquito	B.35	No. 139 Wing RAF
No. 130 Squadron RAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIV
No. 137 Squadron RAF	1945	Hawker Typhoon	Ib
No. 145 Squadron RAF	1952–1954	de Havilland Vampire	FB.5
No. 145 Squadron RAF	1954–1957	de Havilland Venom	FB.1
No. 268 Squadron RAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIVe	Stationed twice
No. 350 Squadron RAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIV
No. 414 Squadron RCAF	1945	Supermarine Spitfire	XIV
No. 486 Squadron RNZAF	1945	Hawker Tempest	V
No. 652 Squadron RAF	1946	Taylorcraft Auster	V

A number of ground-based units were also present:

No. 51 Squadron RAF Regiment
226 Signal Squadron, Royal Corps of Signals

The infrastructure for a renewed airlift, however, was kept in place and was constantly improved until German reunification. The runway was extended in the 1960s and an instrument landing system for runway 26 was installed. At the end of the 1980s, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rail siding received an extensive lighting system.