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Bamberg Army Airfield
35th Field Artillery Group
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please contact me.

History

Avn Sec, 35th FA Gp

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Bamberg Army Airfield, late 1960s

Bamberg Army Airfield, recent (Mike Smith)
 
History
 
(Source: Email from Helmut Weis)

The US Army took over the Bamberg airfield after the end of WWII and set up operations in the southeastern end of the airfield. (That part of the airfield had previously been used by the German military during the war.) The old military buildings were occupied and put to use by the US Army:
Bldg #7363, a small guard house
Bldg #7229, the Ready Bldg - used as a dayroom for personnel assigned to the airfield
Bldg #7238, a hangar - later known as the Maintenance Hangar AVUM

In subsequent years, several additional buildings were added to the compound:

A wooden hangar, Bldg #7231, was added. This building was actually second-hand, as it had previously served as a hangar at the Coburg airfield. It was dismantled at Coburg and then transported to Bamberg to be re-erected at the airfield there.
An airfield operations building, Bldg #7226, was added.
A warehouse building, Bldg #8350, was also constructed.
And finally, in the early 1990's, a large portable hangar was added to the airfield operations area

The taxiways and aprons, initially grass, were partially covered with PSP (perforated steel planking), and later by asphalt.

In the initial years after the end of WWII, the airfield was used exclusively by the Army. In the early 1950s, the Aero Club of Bamberg (flying gliders) was given permission to resume civilian air traffic at the airfield. A few years later, they were given permission for motor flight, also.

 

Aerial view of Bamberg airfield and surroundings, 1954 (Helmut Weis)
 

Drainage Plan, produced by the Utilities Section, Bamberg Subarea Engineer in 1955
 
In 1963, the Army constructed a HAWK air defense site on the northeastern end of the airfield. This would become the home of C Battery, 3rd MSL Bn, 7th Arty.

The noise created day and night by this important operational site, primarily through the constant running of multiple generators that provided all of the site's power, would be a point of contention between the residents and municipal officials of nearby Gartenstadt and the US Army for years to come. In 1976, the problem became mute when the air defense unit moved to a new tactical site at Doerrnwasserlos.

In 1978, the Bamberg airfield saw a significant increase in activity as it served as a base of operations during large fall and winter maneuvers by NATO forces. Airplanes as large as the Air Force's cargo transport C-123 "Provider", the Army's tactical transport CV-2 "Caribou" and the German Air Force's cargo transport "Transall" landed and took off from the airfield.

In the late 1980s, the former HAWK site was used by armored units of the US Army as a local training area.

Although the Aero Club was able to purchase an area of approx. 30,000 sq. meters of the airfield that included the hangars in the late 1990s, the airfield is still jointly used by the German club and the US Army.
 
(Source: Hanno Englaender, Germany)

Bamberg is the hometown of Willy Messerschmitt and so it is no wonder that he began his carreer as an aircraft builder at the site where Bamberg Army Airfield is presently located.

Little is known about the history of this Army Airfield except that during the years 1950 thru 1955 the Airfield's capacity was increased by one wooden hangar. The wooden hangar was dismantled at the Coburg Army Airfield, hauled to Bamberg and re-erected as the third hangar.

The original grassy landing strip, taxiways and apron were improved by the installation of Pierced Steel Planking, which later were partly replaced by asphaltic surfaces.
 

Quonset huts used by Operations, early 1950s (Helmut Weis)
 

Original airfield hangars, early 1950s - L-19 of Avn Section, 26th Inf (Helmut Weis)
 
Avn section
Bamberg AAF

 

1. L-19, early 1950s
2. L-19, early 1950s

 
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