Markersdorf

48°10'44"N 015°29'47"E

runway: n/a - flying field - grass

Markersdorf airfield (Militärflugplatz Markersdorf, also known as Einsatzhafen Markersdorf) was an airfield 65 kilometers west of Vienna.
The airfield was built shortly after the 'Anschluss' of Austria to Nazi-Germany. West of St. Pölten the A-1 autobahn makes a large detour to the south. It is an odd detour around what appears to be an ideally flat area. The reason for this detour lies in the Second World War. Soon after the German Wehrmacht marched into Austria the 'first spade' for a new large airfield was dug by Reichsluftfahrtsminister Hermann Göring. The A-1 autobahn was then built south and around the airfield. Markersdorf had a grass flying field, concrete taxitracks and parkings and 6 hangars. Additionally, it had a logistics site capable of holding 2500 men.

First user of the airfield, between June and October 1939, was II./ZG76 flying Bf109Ds. When they left for the war in Poland, the airfield remained exclusively with Flugzeugführerschule FFS A/B 72 until May 1942, when III./StG2 stayed at the airfield until a month later. It then remained quiet for another year. From 1943 the airfield was used by the following units:
I./Jagdgeschwader 27 - August 1943.
I. /Schlachtgeschwader 3 - November 1943 to January 1944
10./Schlachtgeschwader 77 - March 1944
III./Schlachtgeschwader 10 - May to June 1944, flying FW-190D.
Stab./ and I./Jagdgeschwader 107 - May 1944
II./Jagdgeschwader 108 - June 1944.
Stab./ and I./Jagdgeschwader 105 - June 1944 to April 1945.
8./Jagdgeschwader 108 - November and December 1944.
Parts of I Gruppe (Stab./, I./, II./ and III./) of Schlachtgeschwader 10 - March to May 1945 (flying FW-190D)

Because of heavy air raids on the Wiener Neustadt Flugzeugwerke, a major production facility for Messerschmidt Bf109s, final assembly of the aircraft was moved to Markersdorf in 1944. The massive 4.500 sq. meters of hangar floor were from then on used as production halls. Obviously, it did not take the Allied planners long to discover the airfields new role. From 8 July 1944 until the end of the war the airfield was severly bombed on several occasions by B-17s and B-24s. The after mission report of one such air raid (mission #88 of the 461st Bombardment Group (H)) can be read at 461st.org. The bombings caused great damage, not only to the airfield, but also to the village next to it. Still, production did not end until the final air attack on the night of 1 and 2 April 1945.
After the SS lost the battle for nearby Sankt Polten against the Red Army on 14 April 1945, the remains of the airfield were blown up the following day.


The airfield under attack during Mission 88 of the 461BG(H) on 24 August 1944.

Today, only some concrete roads remain of the former airfield. Some were still showing the scars of air attacks as late as 1999. Almost all buildings, even complete multi-storey barracks, were destroyed and never rebuilt.


Markersdorf in March 2011 (Google Earth)