Known for most of its operational life as RAF Gatow, this former airfield is in the district of Gatow in south-western Berlin, west of the Havel river, in the borough of Spandau. It is now called General-Steinhoff Kaserne and is home to the Luftwaffen Museum der Bundeswehr, the Luftwaffe Museum. The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Berlin-Gatow, a district of south-western Berlin is located west of the Havelsee lake and has forested areas within its boundaries. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... For the 1980s New Wave group, see Spandau Ballet. ... Messerschmitt Me 163 at the Luftwaffenmuseum in Berlin-Gatow The Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr (German for Airforce Museum of the Bundeswehr), together with the Militärhistorische Museum der Bundeswehr, is one of the major military history museums in Germany. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ...

Also on the site of the former RAF station, but not part of General-Steinhoff Kaserne, is a school, the Hans-Carossa-Gymnasium, as well as houses for government employees of the Federal Republic of Germany. This part of the former airfield has since 2003 been part of the district of Berlin-Kladow. The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Kladow in Berlin Kladow is the southernmost district of the Borough of Spandau in Berlin. ...

History

U.S. Army Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lucius D. Clay at RAF Gatow during the Potsdam Conference in 1945.

The airfield was originally constructed in 1934 and 1935 by the Luftwaffe as a staff and technical college, Luftkriegsschule II, in imitation of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell. Clues to its original use survive in the barrack block accommodation, each block of which was named after a famous German airman of the First World War, with the airman's bust above the entrance door. The architect was Ernst Sagebiel, an architect who worked full-time for the Luftwaffe. Other surviving features during the entire period of the airfield's use as RAF Gatow (1945-1994) included lightbulbs in the main hangars, many of which dated from the 1930s. Image File history File links General-Dwight-D-Eisenhower-Lt-General-Lucius-D-Clay-at-Gatow-Airport-in-Berlin. ... Image File history File links General-Dwight-D-Eisenhower-Lt-General-Lucius-D-Clay-at-Gatow-Airport-in-Berlin. ... Eisenhower redirects here. ... Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1897 - April 16, 1978) was an American general. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Cranwell (The name means the spring where the cranes are found) is a village with a population of approximately 3,000 inhabitants (part of the Civil Parish of Cranwell and Byards Leap), situated in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, on the B1429 road approximately 7km north-west... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Ernst Sagebiel (1872 - 1970) was one of Adolph Hitlers architects, best known for his design of the Tempelhof International Airport and other very large Nazi projects related to the Luftwaffe. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Hangars can be used to hold airplanes, airships and helicopters. ...

Late April 1945, towards the end of World War II in Europe, the airfield was occupied by the advancing Red Army. Following the division of Berlin into four sectors, Soviet forces relinquished the airfield to the British after the Potsdam Conference (in exchange for Staaken-Dallgow airfield). On 25 June 1945, 284 Field Squadron, RAF Regiment, arrived at Gatow by land via Magdeburg. Their reception by Soviet troops was extremely hostile, the Soviets attempting to confine 284 Field Squadron behind barbed wire fences, as the Squadron was said to have arrived “too early”. This set the pattern for relations, with Soviet checkpoints being set up beside the airfield manned by fully armed and unfriendly troops. RAF Regiment officers occasionally surveyed Soviet positions by air from Avro Ansons, and the tour of duty of RAF Regiment detachments at Gatow was limited to six months, because of the constant activity occasioned by the Soviet presence and the Berlin Airlift. Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33... The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... Clement Atlee, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945 The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. ... The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regt) is a specialist corps within the Royal Air Force, responsible for capturing and defending airfields and associated installations. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Avro Anson was a twin-engine, multi-role aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm and numerous other air forces during World War II and afterwards. ... The Soviet Union blocked Western rail and road access to West Berlin from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949. ...

An RAF Handley Page Hastings

The first landing by a Royal Air Force aircraft was on 2 July 1945 at 11.55 hours. Initially, Gatow as called Intermediate Landing Place No. 19, but on 19 August 1945 was renamed Royal Air Force Station Gatow, or RAF Gatow for short. The Station was given the Latin motto Pons Heri Pons Hodie, which may be translated as A bridge yesterday, a bridge today. Handley Page Hastings transport. ... Handley Page Hastings transport. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

The Station was modernised with a 2000 yards long concrete runway, using 794 German workers, in March 1947. Along with the American airfield of Tempelhof and the French airfield of Tegel, RAF Gatow played a key role in the Berlin airlift of 1948. Initially, about 150 C-47 Dakotas and 40 Avro Yorks were used to fly supplies into Gatow. By 18 July 1948, the RAF was flying 995 tons of supplies per day into the airfield. Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Exterior of Tempelhof Airport. ... Tegel International Airport Otto Lilienthal (IATA: TXL, ICAO: EDDT) (often shortened to Tegel) is an airport in Berlin, Germany. ... Occupation zones after 1945 The Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948 to May 11, 1949) became one of the first major crises of the new Cold War, when the Soviet Union blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Douglas DC-3 VH-AES at Avalon in 2003. ... The Avro York was a passenger and freight transport of the 1940s, in both military and civilian applications. ...

A B.S.A.A. Avro Tudor 2 pictured at Gatow during the Berlin Airlift

In November the latest RAF transport aircraft, the Handley Page Hastings, was added to the squadrons flying into RAF Gatow and some aircrews and aircraft were redeployed to train replacement aircrews. A Hastings aircraft, which served on the airlift and was later RAF Gatow's 'gate guardian' until the station's closure, is now preserved in the Alliierten Museum (see weblink at base of page). By mid-December, the RAF had landed 100,000 tons of supplies. In April 1949, civilian companies involved in the airlift were formed into a Civil Airlift Division (of British European Airways) to operate under RAF control. By mid-April, the combined airlift of all nations operations managed to make 1,398 flights in 24 hours, carrying 12,940 tons (13,160 t) of goods, coal and machinery, beating their record of 8,246 (8,385 t) set only days earlier. Image File history File linksMetadata BSAA_Avro_Tudor_II_-_G-AKCD_-_Star_Eagle. ... Image File history File linksMetadata BSAA_Avro_Tudor_II_-_G-AKCD_-_Star_Eagle. ... British South American Airways (BSAA) was a British state-run airline of the 1940s. ... The Avro Tudor was a piston-engined airliner based on the Avro Lincoln bomber, itself a descendent of the famous Avro Lancaster. ... The Soviet Union blocked Western rail and road access to West Berlin from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949. ... The Handley Page HP 67 Hastings was a troop-carrier and freight transport of the Royal Air Force. ...

RAF Gatow has the unique and unlikely distinction of being the base for the only known operational use of flying boats in central Europe, during the Berlin airlift, on the nearby Havel river. In July 1948, the RAF began using 10 Short Sunderland and 2 Short Hythe flying boats, flying from the Elbe near Hamburg to Berlin. The flying boats' speciality was transporting bulk salt, which would have been very corrosive to other aircraft, but was not as corrosive to the flying boats because of their normal use for maritime operations. Boeing 314 A flying boat is an aircraft that is designed to take off and land on water, in particular a type of seaplane which uses its fuselage as a floating hull (instead of pontoons mounted below the fuselage). ... Occupation zones after 1945 The Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948 to May 11, 1949) became one of the first major crises of the new Cold War, when the Soviet Union blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The S.25 Sunderland was a flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers, first flown on 16 October 1937. ... The S.25 Sunderland was a flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers, first flown on 16 October 1937. ... Hamburg from above Hamburgs motto: May the posterity endeavour with dignity to conserve the freedom, which the forefathers acquired. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

The novel Air Bridge by Hammond Innes is partially set in RAF Gatow at the time of the Berlin Airlift, and is notable for its accurate descriptions of the Station, including corridors and rooms within it. Some of the descriptions were still accurate some 40 years after the book's publication! Hammond Innes (July 15, 1914 – June 10, 1998) was an English author who wrote over thirty novels, as well as childrens and travel books. ... The Soviet Union blocked Western rail and road access to West Berlin from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949. ...

After the Berlin Blockade, RAF Gatow served as an airfield for the British Army's Berlin Brigade, and was prepared to revert to its role as a supply base, if another Berlin Airlift to West Berlin ever became necessary. Occupation zones after 1945 The Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948 to May 11, 1949) became one of the first major crises of the new Cold War, when the Soviet Union blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... After the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, Allied forces occupied West Berlin. ... The Soviet Union blocked Western rail and road access to West Berlin from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ...

A Chipmunk in RAF colours

Meanwhile, Gatow was also used as a civilian airport for a limited timespan. In 1946, BEA took up flights to and from West Germany. The service moved to Tempelhof airport in 1950, where most of West Berlin's civil aviation was concentrated from then on. Gatow's only non-military use after 1950 were several state visits by Queen Elizabeth and other members of the Royal Family which frequently took place over the years. DH Chipmunk in RAF colours File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... DH Chipmunk in RAF colours File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... For other uses of BEA see Bea British European Airways, or BEA, was formed in 1946 by an Act of Parliament. ... Exterior of Tempelhof Airport. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. ... Members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping the Colour ceremony Close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom are known by the appellation The Royal Family. ...

RAF Gatow was from 1970 also used by the Army Air Corps, 7 Flight being based at the station initially flying three Westland Sioux (UK built Bell 47) and later Aérospatiale Gazelle AH 1 helicopters. From 1986, this was increased to six Aérospatiale Gazelle AH 1 and four Westland Lynx AH 7 helicopters, the Lynx's being equipped to fire TOW anti-tank missiles. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The Army Air Corps is a component of the British Army. ... Bell 47G Bell 47J Bell 47G in M*A*S*H paint scheme. ... This article is about the helicopter. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the helicopter. ... The Westland Lynx is a helicopter designed by Westland and built at Westlands factory in Yeovil, first flying on 21 March 1971 as the Westland WG.13. ...

The RAF Gatow Station Flight used two De Havilland Chipmunk T10s, one of which is now in the Alliierten Museum (see weblink at base of page), to maintain and exercise the British legal right under the Potsdam Agreement to use the airspace over both West and East Berlin, as well as the air corridors to and from West Germany to the city. These aircraft were also used for reconnaissance missions in co-operation with The British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany, commonly known as BRIXMIS (see weblink at base of page to the BRIXMIS Association). A Signals Unit (26SU) was also based at RAF Gatow and on the Teufelsberg in the Grunewald. The de Havilland Chipmunk is a tandem two seat single engined training aircraft, and was the standard primary trainer for the British military though most of the post-war years. ... The Potsdam Agreement, or the Potsdam Proclamation, was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1949--1988), also known as Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (1945--1949) and Western Group of Forces (1988-1990) were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. ... The British Commanders-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) was set up on 16 September 1946 under the Robertson-Malinin Agreement between the chiefs of staff of the British and Soviet forces in occupied Germany. ... Teufelsberg (German for Devils Mountain) is a hill in Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin, rising about 80 meters above the surrounding Brandenburg plain, currently parkland, Grunewald Park. ... Grunewald is both a forest in Berlin on the east side of the Havel and a municipal district of Berlin (part of the borough of [Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf]]. The district developed out of a so-called mansion colony when the upper class of Berlin discovered Grunewald as an attractive site for...

On 15 July 1987 a young East German, Thomas Kruger, defected by flying a Zlin Z-42M light aircraft of the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik (GST - an East German youth military training organisation) from Schoenhagen to RAF Gatow, his first request to the RAF Police being a request for political asylum. He was handed over to the civil authorities and received West German citizenship. His aircraft, registration DDR-WOH, was dismantled and returned to the East Germans by road, complete with humorous slogans painted on by RAF Airman such as "Wish you were here" and "Come back soon". DDR-WOH is still flying today, but since 1991 under the different registration D-EWOH. A plastic model kit of DDR-WOH is available from the German TOGA model company. (A weblink to an airliners.net photo of D-EWOH is in the External Links section below.) 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the historical eastern German provinces, see Historical Eastern Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist Party-led state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ... The Royal Air Force Police (RAFP) is the military police branch of the British Royal Air Force. ... West Germany was the informal but almost universally used name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until 1990, during which years the Federal Republic did not yet include East Germany. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article should belong in one or more categories. ...

The closest military neighbour to RAF Gatow was a tank unit of the National People's Army of East Germany. This was located immediately opposite the airfield, behind the section of the Berlin Wall that ran along the western side of the airfield, and was clearly visible from RAF Gatow's control tower. The Berlin Wall section opposite Gatow was not in fact a wall, but a wire fence. East Germany claimed that this was a "military courtesy", but nobody at RAF Gatow believed this, thinking that it was instead intended to make a military invasion easier. This surmise was confirmed after the reunification of Germany, when the East German invasion plans for West Berlin, codenamed "Operation CENTRE" were found. The invasion plans were continually updated, even in 1990 when it was clear that East Germany would soon cease to exist. NVA troops on parade, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of East Germany in 1989 The National Peoples Army (German: Nationale Volksarmee, NVA) was the army of East Germany (German Democratic Republic). ... GDR redirects here. ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ... German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) refers to the reunification of Germany from its constituent parts of East Germany and West Germany under a single government on October 3, 1990. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Following the reunification of Germany, the British ceded control of Gatow Airport on 18 June 1994, and it was handed back to the Luftwaffe on 7 September 1994. It was kept in use as an airfield for a very short time, and closed to air traffic in 1995. German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) refers to the reunification of Germany from its constituent parts of East Germany and West Germany under a single government on October 3, 1990. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The history of RAF Gatow and of western forces in Berlin from 1945 to 1994 is told in the Alliierten Museum, or the Allied Museum (see weblink to <http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/> at base of page).

Current use

The airfield is now called General-Steinhoff Kaserne. Units now based there are Bw Fachschule Berlin-Gatow, Fernmeldeaufklärungsabschnitt 921, Luftwaffenunterstützungskompanie Gatow, Kommando 3. Luftwaffendivision, Luftwaffenmusikkorps 4 and Truppenambulanz Berlin-Gatow.

Also on the site of the former RAF station, but not part of General-Steinhoff Kaserne, is a school, the Hans-Carossa-Gymnasium, and houses for government employees of the Federal Republic of Germany. This has been since 2003 part of the district of Berlin-Kladow. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Kladow in Berlin Kladow is the southernmost district of the Borough of Spandau in Berlin. ...

The General-Steinhoff Kaserne is also home to the Luftwaffen Museum der Bundeswehr, the museum of the Luftwaffe which has many displays (including historic aircraft) and much information on German military aviation and the history of the airfield. Admission to the museum is free, and full details of the museum and how to get there are on the museum's website <http://www.luftwaffenmuseum.de>.

Bibliography

• Barker, Dudley, Berlin Airlift (HMSO, London, 1949)
• HQ Berlin Infantry Brigade, Berlin Bulletin Volume 45 Issue 36 (Berlin, 16 September 1994)
• Best, Peter B. & Gerlof, Andreas, Flugplatz Gatow (English edition Gatow Airfield) (Kai Homilius Verlag, Berlin, 1998)
• Corbett, Major-General Sir Robert, Berlin and the British Ally, 1945-1990, (Privately published by Sir Robert in Oerlinghausen, 1991)
• Geraghty, Tony, BRIXMIS (London 1996)
• Hall, Alan W., Berlin Airlift, article in Scale Aircraft Modelling, August 1998
• Innes, Hammond, Air Bridge, (London, 1951)
• Meek, Colonel AD, Operation CENTRE, article in British Army Review, August 1994
• Miller, RE, A Bridge Yesterday – The Story of Royal Air Force Gatow (Undated, in 3. Luftwaffendivision Archives)
• Wilson, Squadron Leader GD (edited by S/Ldr. PC Whitfield), History of Gatow (RAF Gatow, March 1971)

See also

• Gatow - district of south-western Berlin
• West Berlin
• Berlin Airlift
• Berlin Wall
• Ernst Sagebiel

Berlin-Gatow, a district of south-western Berlin is located west of the Havelsee lake and has forested areas within its boundaries. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... The Soviet Union blocked Western rail and road access to West Berlin from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949. ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ... Ernst Sagebiel (1872 - 1970) was one of Adolph Hitlers architects, best known for his design of the Tempelhof International Airport and other very large Nazi projects related to the Luftwaffe. ...

External links

• Gatow Airfield in the 1980s photographs
• British Berlin Airlift Association
• RAF Gatow Station Commanders
• RAF Gatow Old Boys Asoociation
• The BRIXMIS Association
• Planeboys Spotters' page on Gatow
• Alliierten Museum (The Allied Museum) - museum of the history of western forces in Berlin and Germany from 1945 to 1994 (in German, English and French)
• Alliierte in Berlin e.V.
• History of the French, American and British Berlin Brigades
• The Aviation Safety Foundation's list of aviation accidents at RAF Gatow
• The Luftwaffe's official website
• Luftwaffen Museum der Bundeswehr - The Luftwaffe Museum official website in German and English
• The Hans-Carossa-Gymnasium (in German)
• The history of Gatow Airfield in German - a project of the Hans-Carossa-Gymnasium
• 2003 photo of the Zlin Z-42M flown to RAF Gatow by an escaper from the GDR in 1987, now registered as D-EWOH

Coordinates: 52°28′28″N, 13°08′17″E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...