Einsatzhafen Vörden

52°26'48.88"N 008°04'42.87"E

Runway: n/a - ....meters/...feet - concrete
Runway: n/a - ....meters/...feet - concrete
Runway: n/a - ....meters/...feet - concrete

Einsatzhafen Vörden was the last of 3 military airfields to be built in the Bamsche area in the late 1930s.
The other two were Hesepe and Achmer, and the three were functionally connected.
Going by the codename "Villa" it had a logistics area (including a 'workmans camp', in reality a camp for forced labour, later a POW-camp) on the north and northeast side.
The airfield was equipped with three connecting concrete runways in the usual triangle form.
To the north and south of the airfield the aircraft parkings were located.
On the northeast and southeast side air traffic control, hangars, workshops and barracks could be found.
In the surrounding woods were more aircraft parkings and wooden towers with light AAA.
The airfield had one major disadvantage: it did not have a connection to the railway system.
This meant that all supplies, including fuel, had to be brought in by truck from a railroad connection 6 kilometers (ca. 4 miles) away.
To store the aviation fuel 4 large 50 cubic meter tanks were dug in.


Shortly after World War II began the first units flew in.
Between 15 September 1939 and January 1940 the First Group of Fighter Wing (German: I. Gruppe des Jagdgeschwaders 1) "Oesau" was based here, flying Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters
When they left, Vörden became somewhat quiet: because of the logistics problem it was only used incidentally, and then mostly by smaller and therefore less fuel consuming aircraft.
To show the severity of the fuel problem: In the first half year of 1944 the First Group of Fighting Wing2 (German: I. Gruppedes Kampfgeschwaders 2) "Holzhammer" was based at Hesepe.
This unit was equipped with Dornier Do 217 bombers, which took up too much space at Hesepe, so several were dispersed to Vörden.
When preparing for missions they would first fly the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to Hesepe to fill up their tanks and get their bomb loads.
From 1943 onwards the three bases grew in importance to counter Allied bombing raids, and of course this gave them their share of fighter activity.
Between 21 November 1944 until January 1945 the Fourth Group/Fighter Wing 54 (German: IV./JG 54) "Grünherz" was based at Vörden, flying Focke-Wulf Fw 190A


Obviously the Allied forces were aware of the three fields, and they flew multiple missions against them, for instance on 21 February 1944.
On 8 April however they got their share of luck: while the other two airfields were attacked, the unit that was to bomb Vörden bombed their secondary target Fliegerhorst Quakenbrück
But other attacks followed and combined they rendered Vörden unusable by early 1945.
The last air raid against Vörden took place on 3 April 1944.
The next morning the Luftwaffe blew up what little was left of the air base and left.
On 9 April Scottish units took control of the base, ending the war for Vörden.


The military use of Vörden did not end here though.
The British took control of Vorden and initially used it as a vehicle storage site.
Later they used the grounds as a military exercise grounds for British units out of Osnabrück and built a gun range at the site named the Vorden Ranges & Training Areas.
Most of the buildings were demolished, but they left the runways mostly intact.


In the 1960s the Royal Netherlands Air Force set up a Nike Hercules site at Vörden.
On the eastern side they set up the missile launchers, while the control facilities were set up on the western side.
The unit was called the First Guided Missile Group (Dutch: Eerste Groep Geleide Wapens, or 1GGW) and they became operational in 1961.
The old WW-II air traffic control center served as ready room for 118Sqn.
The unit had two sections that were nuclear capable, for which reason there was a US Army section at the base too.
This unit, a so-called Custodial Detachment of the US Army, was the 509th US Army Artillery Detachment and they had a small building on the north side of Vörden.
The Dutch stayed until their last Nike unit shut down in March 1983.


When the Dutch announced they would replace their Nike-Hercules with Patriot they also made it clear they would not use Vörden to station them at.
The Bundeswehr then announced they intended to take over the site.
However, despite the Dutch and Americans having walked the area for 30 years without problems, Germany decided not to use Vorden because of fear of unexploded WW-II ordnance.
The site is since been put back into use as an exercise area by the British, and of course the Bundeswehr uses it as well.


Today Vörden has only the old hardened runways left, of the former airbase remains very little.
Its three runways are in reasonbly good shape, especially the south runway, given the times that have passed.
The Dutch missile site still lies abandoned and is now in disrepair.
What happens to the site once the British army leaves Osnabrück remains to be seen.






Einsatzhafen Vörden 2009 (Google Earth)