Knokke-'t Zwin (B-83)

51°21'20"N 003°21'00"E

Runway 12/30 - 3600feet - SMT
Runway 18/36 - 4500feet - SMT

Airfield Knokke-'t Zwin (also known as Knokke-Le Zoute or ALG B-83) was an airfield between Knokke and the "t Zwin" nature area.
It was officially opened as a civilian airfield in 1929, but by the late 1930s it was used regularly by the Belgian Air Force. 


Fokker F.VIII PH-AED 'Duif' ('Dove') at Knokke-Le Zoute in 1934. This photo was sent to me by Mr. Hans Vles of Middelburg, who wrote: "In 1934 my grandparents and sister flew from Rotterdam Waalhaven via Haamstede - Vlissingen Souburg to Knokke Le Zoute". Interestingly, KLM brought PH-AED to the Dutch Antilles as PJ-AED in 1937. KLM sold the aircraft to Venezuela in March 1939, where it was written off only a month later. 60 years later it was found there and in 2001 its remains were salvaged by a team of the Aviodrome museum in the Netherlands. 

Early May 1940 it was home to 6e Escadrille (Squadron) of 3rd Group flying Fairy Foxes tasked with firing exercises over the North Sea. On 10 May 1940 the squadron was ordered to Vissenaeken, leaving behind two unserviceable Fairy Foxes. At 5am that day the airfield was attacked by German bombers. When it was attacked again two days later the Belgian military command ordered the field to be destroyed, which occurred on 18 May.
Several weeks later the Germans ordered local farmers to fill the holes in the field, so they could use it to hold firing training for FLAK units. 6 hangars were built also, but they were never used. In 1942 the airfield was attacked by RAF Typhoons, killling 5 belgian civilians. Fearing they would be shelled from warships, the Germans ordered the airfield destroyed by digging trenches and mining it in early 1944.

In the middle of October 1944 the area was liberated by the Canadian Army. British engineers tasked with repairing the site reported in late november:
"Repair of the airfield (B83) has begun by filling the trenches and demining.
Demining task is enormous, as 5000 mines have been fout to date."
In total the British engineers found 12.000 mines at the site. The airfield got two SMT runways, and construction was finally complete by march 1945. 119 Sqn and 290 Sqn were among the units that used the airfield.


Armourers unload 250-lb GP bombs in front of a line of Fairey Swordfish Mark IIIs of No. 119 Squadron RAF, undergoing maintenance at B83/Knokke le Zoute, Belgium. The Squadron flew anti-shipping patrols, principally against German midget-submarines, in the North Sea and off the Durch coast (ROYAL AIR FORCE COASTAL COMMAND, 1939-1945. © IWM (CL 2277)

After the war the aifield quickly returned to it's pre-war civilian role. Sabena was the last to fly into the airfield commercially in 1959, as motor transport had become a much faster way of reaching Brussels. It was closed by 1960 and all constructions on the site were demolished. The area now has an agricultural destination.


Former airfield Knokke-'t Zwin (B-83) (Knokke-Le Zoute) was located in the field with the green arrow.