page_title: Zutendaal Air Base
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Zutendaal Air Base / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Temporary USAAF Buildings at Asch Airfield Belgium 1945
context_page_description: Zutendaal Air Base is a reserve Belgian Air Component base, located 4 mi east-southeast of Genk, approximately 50 mi east-northeast of Brussels.
context_section_description: In November 1944 a new airfield near the World War I aerodrome was constructed by the United States Army Air Forces IX Engineer Command, 852nd and 846th Engineer Aviation Battalions. Known as Advanced Landing Ground "Y-29", the airfield consisted of a single 5000 foot (1500m) Sod runway aligned 06/24. In addition, tents were erected for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump was created for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water; and a minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting was installed.
  Asch was home to North American P-51 Mustangs of the 352nd Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force (which included the 328th Fighter Squadron, led by George Preddy); and P-47 Thunderbolts from 366th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force, from 19 November 1944 – 11 April 1945. The 406th Fighter Group, also flew from the airfield in P-47s from 8 February – 15 April 1945.   The fighter planes flew support missions, patrolling roads in front of the beachhead; strafing German military vehicles and dropping bombs on gun emplacements, anti-aircraft artillery and concentrations of German troops when spotted.
  On January 1, 1945, Asch airfield was the site of a major aerial battle during the Luftwaffe's Operation Bodenplatte. The FW-190's and Bf-109's of JG-11 arrived at Asch just as the 487th FS of the 352nd FG were rolling down the runway, the ensuing battle came to be known as the Legend of Y-29 and encapsulated the failure of Operation Bodenplatte as a whole. The pilots of the 487th Fighter Squadron who took off did so under fire and in the face of overwhelming odds.  The 487th scored 23 kills while suffering only 2 damaged aircraft in the face of 3:1 odds. For their performance the 487th received the only Distinguished Unit Citation given to a fighter squadron in the European theatre.
  When the fighter units moved out, the 391st Bombardment Group flew B-26 Marauder medium bombers from the airfield until 27 May 1945.  With the end of the war in Europe, the airfield was closed on 20 June 1945.
caption: Temporary USAAF Buildings at Asch Airfield (Y-29) Belgium 1945
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP ojp7700", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 12.01", "Image DateTime": "2012:03:18 11:40:06", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "274", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1112", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3617", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:03:18 11:36:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2135", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "950", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0002\u0002\u0002\u0002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "970", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}