30th August 1939
Barlog 8703
Barlog cartoon postcard depicting a group of soldiers playing cards with an NCO at their door. Bestell-Nr.8703. Written by a soldier at Eschwege Luftpark. Ref: 30.08.1939
The caption reads:
'Wunsch träum' (It’s all a dream): The smiling Corporal being greeted by the card school with shouts of 'I’ve just won!', 'Cheers Corporal!' and 'Share a bottle with us!'.
Eschwege Luftpark
Eschwege (GER) (51 12 00 N – 10 01 40 E) General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) 41.6 km ESE of Kassel in Hesse and 2.4 km NW of Eschwege.
History: construction began on 1 October 1935 and the airfield was officially opened on 30 March 1936. Officially designated a Lw. Fliegerhorstkommandantur on 1 October 1936. Existed mainly for the air park (Luftpark) there, but also used by bomber and short-range reconnaissance units to 1940. Wartime role was storage, aircraft maintenance training and aircraft maintenance replacement.
Dimensions: approx. 915 x 1050 meters (1,000 x 1,150 yards).
Runway: grass surface with paved hangar apron and perimeter road surrounding the landing area.
Infrastructure: fuel, oil, water, ammunitions and communications available. The building area was at the S end of the field and consisted of 5 hangars including a large repair hangar, additional workshop buildings adjacent to the hangars, a flight operations building (Flugleitung), a motor pool with garages, supply buildings, barrack blocks, messes, station HQ and dispensary. A sports ground and swimming pool were sited on the W side of the landing area. A branch railway ran to the rear of the hangars and to storage warehouses at the SW corner of the airfield.
Dispersal: a small area with 4 open aircraft shelters at the SE corner of the field.
Defenses: a single tower for light Flak off the SSE boundary.
Remarks: repeatedly bombed and strafed during the war beginning the night of 18/19 July 1940. 19 Apr 44: bombed by 53 B-17 Fortresses. 27 Sep 44: low-level attack by VIII Fighter Command P-51s – claimed 1 x Fw 190 and 1 x Ju 88 destroyed. 22 Feb 45: town marshaling yards bombed by 30 B-24 Liberators but some of the bombs fell on the airfield. 3 Apr 45: airfield taken by U.S. forces and a USAAF tactical reconnaissance group moved in on 9 April after repair work was completed.
Operational Units: II./KG 254 (Apr 37 – Mar 38); Stab, 1.(H), 2.(H), 4.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 23 (Nov 38 – Aug 39); II./KG 1 (Nov 39 – Jan 40); 3. (H), 5.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 23 (Dec 40 – Apr 41); Stab, 1., 2., 3./NSGr. 2 (Mar-Apr 45).
Station Commands: Fl.H.Kdtr. A Eschwege (1940); Fl.Pl.Kdo. A 25/VI (c. Feb 43 – Mar 44); Fl.H.Kdtr. A(o) 13/VI (Apr 44 – Apr 45). Kommandant (prior to the establishment of a numbered station command – not complete): Maj. Siebel (fall 36 - Aug 38).
Station Units (on various dates – not complete): Luftpark Eschwege (fall 1936 - 1940); Feldwerft-Ers.Abt. (c.1941-45); NSFK-Gruppe “Mitte”; Ln.-Techn.Kp. (Bord) 1 (Jan 45); Ln.-Heimatreparaturbetrieb 4/VI (Wanfried, c.1942-45).
Source: ww2.dk
Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page