Burg

51°11'29"N 014°31'17"E

Runway 04/22 - 1200x20m - concrete (CLOSED)
Runway 07/25 - 1400x30m - concrete (CLOSED)

Airfield Burg (german: Flugplatz Burg, also known as Fliegeerhorst Burg) was an airfield near Burg, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.
The airfield should not be confused with the former NVA airfield Burg (ICAO:EDBG) located 1.5 miles to the southwest, which still serves as an airfield.
Construction of airfield Burg began in 1937 after the Luftwaffe realised it needed 3 strategically important airfields in the middle of Germany. One of these three airfield was Burg, just east of the town of the same name. Within the shortest of time hangars, workshops and barracks were built on a 200 hectare piece of property. Shortly thereafter the first machines were able to land at the airfield, but the first thing the citizens of Burg noticed of the airfield was the Music corps of the airfield, who played modern (for the period) dance musik.
Although the airfield was not formally introduced to the city until spring of 1939, it had its first flying school 2 years earlier. Several flying schools would be stationed at the base at different times throughout its existence, right until the very end.


Entrance to the Fliegerhorst - presumably pre1940

During the Poland campaign the airfield was also host to KG vbV flying Ju52/3m transport aircraft. After the ending of the battles in the east, III.KG1 was based at the field until February 1940, followed by I./KG3 until April 1940. Conversion to the long range He177 bomber for Stab, I. and II/KG1 occurred at Burg, from November 1943 until June 1944. Around the same time KG50 converted to the same aircraft. Another modern aircraft that was introduced into Luftwaffe service at Burg was the Ar234 medium jet bomber. KG76 converted to what was then the fastest aircraft of the war, flying 800 kilometers/hour. Conversion occurred from late August 1944, after which they rotated out to other airfields.
Another noteworthy unit was the secret Geheimgeschwader KG200, who were introduced to the 'Mistel'; a Bf109 fighter coupled onto a no longer usable bomber filled with explosives. The resulting flying bomb was alledgedly capable of penetrating 20 meters of concrete. Parts of KG200s second Staffel (II./KG200) had to remain at Brug after conversion.
Fighter aircraft I./JG3 stayed at the airfield twice in 1944; between February and June, and a second shorter time in the first half of August. Towards the end of the war Burg was host to the most modern machine of the time, the Me262 jet fighter. From December 1944 until early April 1945 10./NJG11 was stationed at the base with two-seat 262s to test the aircrafts potential as a night fighter. They only scored victories against lone Mosquito bombers. From March 1945 2/nahaufklarungsgruppe (Close Reconnaissance Group) 6 was stationed at Burg, joined by 2.JG7 on 1 April 1945. They did not achieve any worthwhile successes against the overwhelming forces against them.


Map of Burg as it looked until 10 April 1945

On 10 April 1945 the air raid alarm sounded in the city, like so often in those days. A little later 150 B-17s of the Eigth Air Force appeared from the northwest. The city was not bombed, but the airfield, which by this time no longer served any strategic purpose, was destroyed. Without any interference from the fighters at the base 1,600 bombs were dropped on the airfield. When the bombers left the smoking airfield, about 85% of it had been destroyed and rendered completely useless.
A day later the first soldiers of the US 9th Army drove to the banks of the Elbe from the west. One Me 262 managed to escape after it had been towed to a nearby Autobahn, where it took off. The rest of the aircraft were too large however, and without fuel and spare parts they were unable to take off from the airfields severely damaged runways anyway. The Luftwaffe personnel were armed and used as infantry to defend the Elbe line from the Americans.

The Soviet occupation forces were not interested in fitting out the airfield again. Instead, from 1947 they used the barracks to house refugees that either fled or were removed from other parts of Europe, where they were no longer wanted. Under the name "Waldfrieden" (Forest peace) they intended to begin a new burrough of Burg on the logistics site of the airfield. 
From 1949 the Barracked Peoples Police (forerunner to the National Peoples Army or NVA) occupied the barracks. They were followed up by the 1st Armoured Battallion of the NVA in 1953, who remained at the barracks until 1990. The last NVA user of the "Carl-von-Clausewitz" barracks was Training Unit 19.
Today it is used by the German Army for a transport unit. Apart from the housing barracks and the remarkable guard building nothing remains of the former Fliegerhorst, although parts of the runway system can still be recognised in aerial photography.


Burg as it looked in 2006. The runways and some taxitracks can still be recognised in the fields (Google Earth)