Peronne-St Quentin Airport
Encyclopedia
Peronne-St Quentin Airport is a regional airport in France
, located 11 miles (17.7 km) west of Saint-Quentin
; 121 miles (194.7 km) north of Paris
It supports general aviation
with no commercial airline service scheduled.
civil airport, consisting of a terminal, hangar, some support buildings and a grass airfield, serving the nearby city of Saint-Quentin.
, however the airport was not used by any Luftwaffe
units for several years. Beginning in 1944, several Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft units, Flak-Regiment 87 and Flak-Regiment 19 based their batteries of 8.8 cm (88mm) FlaK guns at the site.
In addition, the Germans laid down two 1500m all-weather concrete runways at the airport, aligned 04/22 and 09/27. Presumably this was due to the fortification of the Pas-de-Calais, being believed by the Germans that when the Americans and British tried to land in France to open a Second Front, the airfield would have a key role in the defense of France.
Beginning in mid-June 1944, Jagdgeschwader 5 (JG 5) was assigned to the airfield, with Messerschmitt Bf 109
G day interceptor fighters. From Peronne, JG 5 began attacking the USAAF Eighth Air Force
heavy bomber fleets attacking targets in Occupied Europe and Germany. Previously not attacked by Allied bombers, the airport came under frequent attack by Ninth Air Force
B-26 Marauder
medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolt
s mostly with 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force
heavy bombers (B-17s, B-24s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base. The attacks were timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers.
combat units on 6 September, only a few days after its capture from German forces, being designated as Advanced Landing Ground
"A-72 Peronne Airfield"
In addition to the airfield, tents were used for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water and minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting. It hosted the following known Ninth Air Force
units:
When the combat units moved out, Peronne was turned over to Air Technical Service Command, becoming an Air Depot and a storage depot for large numbers of surplus aircraft, whose units had returned to the United States via ship.
Peronne Air Base was turned over to the French Air Ministry on 30 June 1945.
In 1950 when as a result of the Cold War
threat of the Soviet Union
, the air base at Peronne was offered to the United States Air Force
by the French Air Ministry as part of their NATO commitment to establish a modern Air Force Base at the site. NATO faced several problems when attempting to solve the air power survival equation. Planning for a Warsaw Pact
first strike survival in both conventional and nuclear wars had to be considered. The main air bases were built on small parcels of land with very limited dispersal space. It was decided to use Peronne as an emergency "backup" airfield, known as Saint Quentin-Estres Air Base, consisting of a "bare bones" facility of a runway with minimal facilities intended for use by all NATO air forces to disperse their aircraft in case of war.
Beginning about 1954, French demolition companies returned to Peronne and began demolishing the structures and removing the wreckage of the World War II air base. French Army Explosive demolition teams were brought in to safely remove unexploded ordinance remaining from the war and the site was prepared for construction. A modern all-weather concrete NATO jet runway was laid down aligned 09/27 (east-west), with taxiways and dispersal areas for three fighter squadrons. The dispersals were designed in a circular marguerite system of hardstands which could be revetted later with earth for added aircraft protection. Typically the margueriete consisted of fifteen to eighteen hardstands, with each hardstand capable of parking one or two aircraft, allowing the planes to be spaced approximately 150 feet (50 m) apart. Each squadron was assigned to a separate hangar/hardstand complex.
Other than the occasional touch-and-go landing of NATO (USAF) aircraft, Peronne Air Base was never used. With the French withdrawal from the integrated military component of NATO in 1967, the base was abandoned.
Today the NATO runway and taxiway are used by the airport, however the runway has been shortened, with about half its length as the active airport runway The wartime 04/22 still exists in a very deteriorated condition, unused. It appears that much of the enclosing taxiway have been turned into agricultural roads.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, located 11 miles (17.7 km) west of Saint-Quentin
Saint-Quentin, Aisne
Saint-Quentin is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France. It has been identified as the Augusta Veromanduorum of antiquity. It is named after Saint Quentin, who is said to have been martyred here in the 3rd century....
; 121 miles (194.7 km) north of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
It supports general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
with no commercial airline service scheduled.
History
Peronne Airport was a pre-World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
civil airport, consisting of a terminal, hangar, some support buildings and a grass airfield, serving the nearby city of Saint-Quentin.
German use during World War II
It was seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the early part of the Battle of FranceBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
, however the airport was not used by any Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
units for several years. Beginning in 1944, several Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft units, Flak-Regiment 87 and Flak-Regiment 19 based their batteries of 8.8 cm (88mm) FlaK guns at the site.
In addition, the Germans laid down two 1500m all-weather concrete runways at the airport, aligned 04/22 and 09/27. Presumably this was due to the fortification of the Pas-de-Calais, being believed by the Germans that when the Americans and British tried to land in France to open a Second Front, the airfield would have a key role in the defense of France.
Beginning in mid-June 1944, Jagdgeschwader 5 (JG 5) was assigned to the airfield, with Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
G day interceptor fighters. From Peronne, JG 5 began attacking the USAAF Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
heavy bomber fleets attacking targets in Occupied Europe and Germany. Previously not attacked by Allied bombers, the airport came under frequent attack by Ninth Air Force
Ninth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
B-26 Marauder
B-26 Marauder
The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....
medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47 Thunderbolt
Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug", was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single reciprocating engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to...
s mostly with 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
heavy bombers (B-17s, B-24s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base. The attacks were timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers.
American use
American Ninth Army units moved though the area in early September 1944, heading towards Saint-Quentin. On 5 September The IX Engineer Command 862d Engineer Aviation Battalion moved in and began a quick rehabilitation of the base so it could be used by American aircraft. It was declared operationally ready for Ninth Air ForceNinth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
combat units on 6 September, only a few days after its capture from German forces, being designated as Advanced Landing Ground
Advanced Landing Ground
Advanced Landing Ground was the term given to the temporary advance airfields constructed by the Allies during World War II in support of the invasion of Europe...
"A-72 Peronne Airfield"
In addition to the airfield, tents were used for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water and minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting. It hosted the following known Ninth Air Force
Ninth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
units:
- 474th Fighter Group, - September-1 October 1944 P-38 LightningP-38 LightningThe Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
- 397th Bombardment Group, 6 October 1944-25 April 1945 B-26 MarauderB-26 MarauderThe Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....
When the combat units moved out, Peronne was turned over to Air Technical Service Command, becoming an Air Depot and a storage depot for large numbers of surplus aircraft, whose units had returned to the United States via ship.
Peronne Air Base was turned over to the French Air Ministry on 30 June 1945.
Postwar/NATO use
In French control after the war, the airport sat abandoned for years. There was much unexploded ordinance at the site which needed to be removed, as well as the wreckage of German and Allied aircraft. All of the buildings at the base were destroyed by the Allied air attacks or demolition, and although some had been repaired by the American combat engineers, most were in ruins. The French Air Force had no interest in the facility, and there was no money available to restore and rebuilt the prewar airport. As a result, the Air Ministry leased the land, concrete runways, structures and all, out to farmers for agricultural use, sending in unexploded ordnance teams to remove the dangerous munitions.In 1950 when as a result of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
threat of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the air base at Peronne was offered to the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
by the French Air Ministry as part of their NATO commitment to establish a modern Air Force Base at the site. NATO faced several problems when attempting to solve the air power survival equation. Planning for a Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
first strike survival in both conventional and nuclear wars had to be considered. The main air bases were built on small parcels of land with very limited dispersal space. It was decided to use Peronne as an emergency "backup" airfield, known as Saint Quentin-Estres Air Base, consisting of a "bare bones" facility of a runway with minimal facilities intended for use by all NATO air forces to disperse their aircraft in case of war.
Beginning about 1954, French demolition companies returned to Peronne and began demolishing the structures and removing the wreckage of the World War II air base. French Army Explosive demolition teams were brought in to safely remove unexploded ordinance remaining from the war and the site was prepared for construction. A modern all-weather concrete NATO jet runway was laid down aligned 09/27 (east-west), with taxiways and dispersal areas for three fighter squadrons. The dispersals were designed in a circular marguerite system of hardstands which could be revetted later with earth for added aircraft protection. Typically the margueriete consisted of fifteen to eighteen hardstands, with each hardstand capable of parking one or two aircraft, allowing the planes to be spaced approximately 150 feet (50 m) apart. Each squadron was assigned to a separate hangar/hardstand complex.
Other than the occasional touch-and-go landing of NATO (USAF) aircraft, Peronne Air Base was never used. With the French withdrawal from the integrated military component of NATO in 1967, the base was abandoned.
Return to civil use
With the abandonment of the facility by NATO, the airfield was acquired by the local government and redeveloped into a commercial airport. The marguerite dispersal hardstands were torn up and sold for hardcore aggrigate, with a small part of the 22 end of the old wartime runway was used for a parking ramp. A new terminal was erected and also small hangar for private aircraft.Today the NATO runway and taxiway are used by the airport, however the runway has been shortened, with about half its length as the active airport runway The wartime 04/22 still exists in a very deteriorated condition, unused. It appears that much of the enclosing taxiway have been turned into agricultural roads.
See also
- Advanced Landing Ground