Cambrai - Niergnies Airport Cambrai - Niergnies Airport is a regional airport in France , located south - southeast of Cambrai ; north - northeast of Paris It supports general aviation with no commercial airline service scheduled . History . Niergnies Airport was a pre - World War II civil airport , consisting of a terminal , hangar , some support buildings and a grass airfield , serving the nearby city of Cambrai . German use during World War II . It was seized by the Germans in late May 1940 during the early part of the Battle of France . It was briefly used as a fighter airfield by Jagdgeschwader 3 ( JG 3 ) in late May , participating in the Blitzkrieg against the French Army and British Expeditionary Force flying Messerschmitt Bf 109 Es . After the battle , the airfield was not used by the Luftwaffe for several years . In 1943 , the Germans laid down two 1600m all - weather concrete runways at the airport , aligned 15 / 33 and 09 / 27 . Large numbers of aircraft dispersal pads , maintenance shops , hangars and other support facilities were also built . 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 . This construction drew the attention of the USAAF Ninth Air Force , which attacked the airfield on 1st and 2d December 1943 with B - 26 Marauder medium bombers ( 322d , 387th Bombardment Groups ) , servery damaging the facility . The airfield was not used again by the Germans . American use . American Ninth Army units moved though the area in early September 1944 , heading towards Cambrai . On 10 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 . The engineers filled bomb craters and laid Pierced Steel Planking over the damaged areas of the 15 / 33 runway , and patched the 08 / 26 runway with asphalt and tarmac . 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 was declared operationally ready for Ninth Air Force combat units on 12 September , only a few days after its capture from German forces , being designated as Advanced Landing Ground " A - 74 Cambrai / Niergnies Airfield " It hosted the following known Ninth Air Force units : When the combat units moved out , Niergnies was turned over to the French Air Ministry on 30 June 1945 . Postwar / NATO use . In French control after the war , the base sat abandoned for several years . There was much unexploded ordnance at the site which needed to be removed , as well as the wreckage of German and American aircraft . Many of the buildings at the base were destroyed by the war , and although some had been repaired by the American combat engineers , most were in ruins . The French Air Force had no interest in the airfield and there was no money available to restore the commercial airport that existed before the war . 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 threat of the Soviet Union , the air base at Cambrai - Niergnies 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 Cambrai - Niergnies as an emergency " backup " airfield , 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 1953 , French demolition companies returned to Laon - Athies and began demolishing the German structures and removing the wreckage of the World War II air base . French Army Explosive demolition teams were brought in to safely remove unexploded ordnance remaining from the war and the site was prepared for construction . A modern all - weather concrete NATO jet runway was laid down aligned 17 / 35 over one of the former German runways , with alert pads for two fighter squadrons on each end of the runway . The extensive Luftwaffe dispersal pads and taxiways were also refurbished and integrated into the new base . Along the new NW / SE taxiway a circular marguerite system of hardstands which could be revetted later with earth for added aircraft protection was built . In addition , the wartime 08 / 26 runway had the wartime repairs removed and was totally refurbished , giving the airfield two operational runways . When completed , the base could accommodate about three or four squadrons of aircraft , 50 total . However , other than the occasional touch - and - go landing of NATO ( USAF ) aircraft , Cambrai - Niergnies Air Base was never used . With the French withdrawal from the integrated military component of NATO in 1967 , the base was abandoned . Civil use . With the NATO facility closed , the facility was turned over by the French Air Ministry to the local government . A small part of the large NATO air base has been converted into a civil airport , with about 3000 ' of the 5000 ' 08 / 26 secondary runway being maintained as the airport ' s runway . Parallel to the runway , a short grass runway has been built for glider use . An asphalt taxiway connects the runway to a small parking / ramp area used by light aircraft , with what appears to be NATO - era buildings being used as support buildings for the airport and several hangars . The expensive NATO airfield still exists , complete with runways , taxiways and dispersals , deteriorating after 40 years of abandonment . Expansion joints in the concrete are starting to separate the various concrete pads , and a few of the dispersals have large amounts of vegetation growing on them , presumably though the cracks in the concrete . From the air , the airfield appears frozen in time , a complete , well - equipped Cold War air base which was never used .