Giebelstadt Army Airfield Giebelstadt Army Airfield is a closed military airfield located in Germany southwest of Giebelstadt ( Bavaria ) ; approximately 250 miles southwest of Berlin . It was turned over to the German government on 23 June 2006 and is now a general aviation airport . Fliegerhorst Giebelstadt was one of the first Luftwaffe airfields , being established in 1935 . During World War II , it was a reserve airfield in the rear area of Central Germany Later , it was a key defensive airfield as part of the " Defense of the Reich " campaign where Messerschmitt Me 262 Jet fighters assigned to the field intercepted Allied bombers attacking Germany . After being captured by the United States Army in April 1945 , it briefly became a combat airfield for Ninth Air Force and after the war was used by the United States Air Forces in Europe until 1968 in a variety of missions , from Strategic Reconnaissance to air defense interceptor . Turned over to the United States Army in 1968 , it was the home of Air Defense Artillery and many other units . Giebelstadt Army Airfield was closed by the United States Army on 23 June 2006 as part of the United States restructing its European forces . History . Origins . The layout for Fliegerhorst Giebelstadt began in June 1934 with site reconnaissance , and land purchasing began shortly afterwards . Official construction began in the late summer under the code name " Höhenflugzentrale Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule " ( Altitude Flight Central of the German Airline Pilot School ) . By January 1935 enough construction was completed for the airfield to open . The school , however , was only in name because the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles , which ended World War I , did not permit Germany to have a military air force . In addition to the airfield construction , in the village of Giebelstadt many housing units were built for both officers and enlisted men assigned to the airfield . Although the town was damaged significantly during World War II , many of these houses and barracks still exist and are in use as private homes and apartments . The unmasking of the Luftwaffe by Germany took place on 3 January 1935 , and Fliegerhorst Giebelstadt was one of the first operational Luftwaffe stations . The airfield at first consisted of a turf runway along with two paved launch platforms . The first operational flying unit assigned to Giebelstadt was " Fliegergruppe Giebelstadt " , activated at the base on 10 January 1935 . Adolf Hitler officially opened the airfield after a review of the troops on 11 September 1936 . Major General Albert Kesselring inspected the base in February 1937 and presented the unit with its colors . Later that year , the people of Giebelstadt held a festival on the airbase as part of the celebration commemorating the town ' s 1100th year of existence . Fliegergruppe Giebelstadt was later redesignated as " Kampfgeschwader 155 " ( KG 155 ) and was equipped with an early version of the Heinkel He 111 Bomber ( He 111A - 0 ) . KG 155 moved to Austria following the Anschluss in 1938 , being reassigned to Wiener Neustadt . KG 155 was replaced by the formation of Kampfgeschwader 53 " Legion Condor " ( KG 53 ) in January 1939 , being equipped also with He 111s . The bomber unit remained until August 1939 , when at the brink of World War II it was reassigned to Ansbach where it engaged in operations over Poland . During the " Phony War " with the British and French , Kampfgeschwader 2 ( KG 2 ) , with Dornier Do 17 Zs between February and March 1940 . Luftwaffe use during World War II . At the beginning of World War II , aircraft from Giebelstadt flew support missions in conjunction with the German Blitzkrieg , flying many missions against various targets in France . As the war moved away from Giebelstadt , the base became a training facility for pilots , observers and radio operators from 1939 until 1941 . I / KG 76 used the airfield from October 1940 to April 1941 to upgrade from Do 17s to Junkers Ju 88 As . III / KG 76 was stationed at the airfield during August / September 1941 and from April / May 1942 , for rest and rearmament from duty in the Soviet Union . During 1943 , Kampfgeschwader 100 ( KG 100 ) moved in for R & R in May , exchanging He 111H ' s for newer Dornier Do 217 E / K model bombers . At first , the sod airfield was circular with planes taking off and landing into the wind , whichever direction that happened to be . Beginning in 1944 , Giebelstadt received a very long ( 3000m 9 , 100 ft ) paved runway aligned 08 / 26 slightly to the east and south of the original 1935 airfield . In addition , other upgrades to facilities were included in the plans for Giebelstadt to be used for jet interceptor aircraft operations such as additional aircraft dispersal sites , an expansion of the fuel dump and other facilities . This in turn made a significant extension of the airfield . With this construction , the expanded air base site was about 250ha in size . Not only was the location of the airbase a closely held secret , the town name itself was banned from all maps of the region and can still be hard to find on some maps today . To hide the airfield from Allied reconnaissance aircraft , workers painted the runway to resemble a grassy field complete with fluffy white sheep . In April 1944 , jet aircraft arrived at Giebelstadt with Kampfgeschwader 54 ( KG 54 ) and the Messerschmitt Me 262 A . In addition , testing of the Messerschmitt Me 163 A Rocket fighter took place . In March 1945 , KG 54 was replaced by Kampfgeschwader 51 ( KG 51 ) with newer model Me 262s , remaining until March 1945 when aircraft operation at the airfield became unsustainable . The Jet aircraft at Giebelstadt drew the attention of the USAAF Eighth Air Force , with no less than five heavy bomber attacks on the airfield between September 1944 and March 1945 . In addition , as Giebelstadt came in range of Ninth Air Force B - 26 Marauder medium bombers and P - 47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers in eastern France , attacks on the airfield by these tactical units with 500 - pound General - Purpose bombs ; unguided rockets and . 50 caliber machine gun sweeps were frequent . These attacks would take place when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers ( B - 17 s , B - 24 s ) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe jets assigned to the base , with the attacks being timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers . World War II USAAF use . At the end of March 1945 , the 12th Armored Division captured Giebelstadt and its airfield shortly before the end of the war in Europe . The airfield had been heavily bombed and Soldiers of the United States Army ’ s 12th Armored Division rolled into Giebelstadt capturing it unopposed . In the fields surrounding the base , the Army Soldiers found the burned out hulks of numerous bombers destroyed by the fleeing German forces . On 5 April the IX Engineer Command 819th Engineer Aviation Battalion moved in and began patching the bomb craters of the airfield ' s concrete runway . Within a day the airfield was usable for C - 47 Skytrain transports for combat resupply and casualty evacuation ( S & E ) use , with the airfield being designated as Advanced Landing Ground " Y - 90 Giebelstadt " . Combat units arrived on 20 April when the P - 47 Thunderbolt - equipped 50th Fighter Group began using the airfield , and the 417th Night Fighter Squadron arrived for night fighter defensive interceptor missions against any rogue Luftwaffe aircraft still in the skies . Postwar USAF use . With the end of combat in Germany on 7 May , the combat units were withdrawn and Giebelstat became a garrison for the Army of Occupation , designated Army Air Force Station Giebelstadt . Repairing the damage to the airfield and the support area was performed , in large part , by German Prisoners of War , into 1946 and turning the airfield into a usable , long term facility to be used by the Air Force . The last POW was released from Giebelstadt on 20 August 1946 . Then , for nearly a decade after the war Giebelstadt airfield was used periodically by the Air Force until it was made a permanent United States Air Forces in Europe airbase in 1956 . With the base and facilities undergoing repair , USAFE moved the 55th Fighter Group to Giebelstadt in April 1946 from Kaufbeuren Air Base , equipped first with P - 47s , then , due to the long runway , upgraded the unit to P - 80 Shooting Star jet aircraft later in 1946 . General Carl A " Tooey " Spatz , Commanding General of the Army Air Forces , visited the base in July 1946 , witnessing an aerial review of the newly acquired P - 80 jet fighters . The 55th was inactivated in August due to budget reductions , the P - 80s being reassigned to the incoming 31st Fighter Group which replaced the 55th . Giebelstadt was placed on " Standby " status due to budget reductions in September , with the 31st and its jets being moved to Kitzingen Air Base . During 1947 , with the airfield inactive , the war damaged and repaired German jet runway was replaced with a new , 7 , 200 ' runway , and additional facilities were upgraded and brought into service . New hangars were constructed along with a large concrete parking apron and in late 1947 was redesignated as Giebelstadt Air Base The new Strategic Air Command dispatched nine B - 29 Superfortress very heavy bombers of the 97th Bombardment Group to Giebelstadt to conduct training during temporary deployments to Europe . The last SAC personnel returned to the United States in January 1948 , and afterward the facility was closed and placed on standby status due to budget reductions in the postwar era . The US Air Force returned in April 1950 , when the 603rd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron , stationed at Hof arrived at Giebelstadt AB as part of an Operational Readiness Test . In May they were placed on temporary status and finally in August 1950 , Giebelstadt was made the home of the 603d , with the main mission of Giebelstadt becoming an Air Defense Radar Station , equipped with the Bendix AN / FPS - 3 . 3A search RADAR . With the breakout of the Cold War , the usefulness of the airfield by the Air Force became limited , as Giebelstadt was simply too close to the East German border to station tactical aircraft . The flight time for jet aircraft from the border was less than 15 minutes , which meant little or no time was available to launch aircraft from the field before it coming under attack . The airfield , however , remained active as various MATS C - 54 Skymaster transport units used the base during 1951 - 1952 ; then it was used by various transient transport aircraft throughout the 1950s and 1960s . In July 1956 the 603d ACW departed for Langerkopf AS , and the RADAR station was taken over by the 602d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron , which moved in from Birkenfeld AS . With the arrival , Giebelstat was upgraded to the AN / FPS - 20 General Surveillance Radar and the AN / FPS - 6 Long - Range Height Finder Radar . Starting in 1956 Central Intelligence Agency Lockheed U - 2 reconnaissance aircraft flew from the airfield . Detachment " A " , with four U - 2 aircraft , arrived at Giebelstadt from Wiesbaden Air Base in October 1956 , the reason being that U - 2 operations from the relatively isolated Giebelstadt would draw much less attention than from Wiesbaden . Towards the end of the year , Detachment A flew U - 2s three times over Albania , Bulgaria , Romania and Yugoslavia . The Detachment was operational at Giebelstadt until 15 November 1957 , when it was closed down , and U - 2 operations were moved to Pakistan . During the 1960s , F - 102 Delta Dagger interceptors of the 86th Air Division used the base frequently as a forward base from their home bases west of the Rhine . The departure of the F - 102 from USAFE and budget reductions in the Air Force led to the departure of the 602nd ACW in July 1968 . Giebelstadt Air Base and all of its facilities were transferred to United States Army control in August 1968 . United States Army use . Many Army units came and went over the years , but in recent time the airfield hosted the 4th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division ( Mechanized ) flying mostly AH - 1 Cobra attack helicopters and UH - 60 Blackhawk transport helicopters . The 4th Brigade left Giebelstadt in early 1992 , replaced by AH - 64 Apache attack helicopters of the 2nd Battalion , 3rd Aviation Regiment , and UH - 60 Blackhawk and OH - 58 Kiowas of the 12th Aviation Brigade . Air Defense Artillery ( ADA ) continued to play a major role on the airfield with the presence of " C " Battery of the 6th Battalion , 52nd ADA Regiment , with its Hawk missile batteries and the senior officer on post commanding the 69th ADA Brigade . In 1993 , the Apache helicopter and Hawk ADA units deactivated and a CH - 47 Chinook company arrived from Schwaebisch Hall Army Airfield . In 1994 , the OH - 58 Kiowa units disbanded as the aircraft returned to the states for conversion to armed OH - 58 Kiowa Warriors . Also in 1994 , tragedy struck the Giebelstadt military community in April when two Blackhawk helicopters of the 5th Battalion , 158th Aviation Regiment , assigned to Giebelstadt were mistakenly shot down by USAF F - 15 ' s over Iraq . All 26 people were killed , including eight Giebelstadt crew members . In 1995 , the primary units on Giebelstadt Army Airfield are : the 69th ADA Brigade , the 5th Battalion , 158th Aviation Regiment ( UH - 60 ' s ) ; A Company , 5th Battalion , 159th Aviation Regiment ( CH - 47s ; and B Company , 7th Battalion , 159th Aviation Regiment ( Third Corps Support Command aircraft maintenance ) , US Air Force units on Giebelstadt AAF are Det . 10 , 617th Weather Squadron , providing weather support for the airfield and to the 3rd Infantry Division ( Mechanized ) headquartered in Wuerzburg , and OL - C , 617th Comm Squadron , providing maintenance support for meteorological and navigation equipment in the area . The Department of Defense announced on 29 July 2005 plans for the return of eleven Army bases to Germany in fiscal year 2007 . These installation returns were scheduled as part of plans for the 1st Infantry Division headquarters ' return to the United States with its divisional flag in the summer of 2006 . As part of this redeployment , Giebelstadt Army Airfield was closed by the United States Army on 23 June 2006 . Current use . After being turned over to the German government in 2006 , Giebelstadt Airfield has become a commercial airport used by general aviation aircraft ( see Giebelstadt Airport ) . Due to the frequent wartime bombing attacks , much of the wartime airfield was destroyed . Almost all of the buildings on the airfield are of postwar vintage , although the modern buildings are constructed in a traditional German style . In the town of Giebelstadt , many of the buildings used for personnel barracks and housing still exist and still are being used . The original circular airfield still exists , in part , and some wartime concrete hardstands remain . A pre - war Luftwaffe hangar which was repaired remains to the west side of the original airfield , connected to an enclosing taxiway and some aircraft parking hardstands . The 1944 extension with the extended length jet runway remains , with the taxiways and hardstands for Me 262 use remaining . The runway , reduced in length in 1947 still has part of its wartime concrete remaining between the Bundesstraße 19 ( B - 19 ) highway and the current runway 20 ( west ) end . Remains of the original B - 19 highway , which was cut in 1944 when the jet runway was built , still remain to the south of the airfield , today being a single lane farm road running north - south that intersects the airfield about midway between the runway ends . In the neighboring town of Wolkshausen , south of the airfield , the old B - 19 is still known as " Giebelstadter Straße "