Peest

53°02'51"N 006°30'00"E

runway: 04/13 - ...x..m - grass
runway: 09/27 - ...x..m - grass
runway: 13/31 - ...x..m - grass

Peest airfield (German: Nachtlandeplatz (night diversion field) Peest, known to Allied planners as Norg airfield) was the first attempt of the German occupying forces to build an airfield in the province of Drenthe.
In a very short timespan a complete airbase was constructed by 2,500 men, just south of the little rural village of Peest, consisting of 3 runways and several buildings such as a communications building, kitchen, bunkers, storage, 2 firestations, barracks, munitionstorage, etc. A similarly sized dummy airfield was built to the north near Donderen. 
Soon the grass runways proved to be too soggy to land and start aircraft however, rendering the whole effort useless. Therefore in 1942 the Germans turned to Havelte to build a new airfield and used the Peest airfield to grow crops and to breed pigs and rabbits. By the end of the war the Germans blew up many of the buildings, although Canadian liberators found many undamaged ones as well. 


Nachtlandeplatz Peest on an Allied map


Undated Allied reconnaissance photo of Peest (Netherlands Institute for Military History - NIMH, Netherlands Ministry of Defense).


Peest, referenced on this Allied map as Norg and its dummy satellite airfield (Netherlands Institute for Military History - NIMH, Netherlands Ministry of Defense).


Aerial photo of the remains of Peest, photographed in October 1945 (Netherlands Institute for Military History - NIMH, Netherlands Ministry of Defense).

After the war, the terrain served as an ammunitions dump for some time. Later it was turned over to the Dutch state agriculture company with the aim of returning the terrain to agricultural use. Some of the buildings still exist, albeit in converted form. The small airfield fire station for instance, was turned into a private home. Also, the waterbassin for the fire trucks at the Westerveen, known by the local people as the 'Hitler ring' (which was actually the name of the road around the the bassin), remains as a reminder.




The area of the failed 'Nachtlandeplatz Peest' seen on a 2010 aerial photo of the site.


On the east side of the airfield that was never used, a small fire station was built in 1941. As the airfield was never used, the building was used to store fertiliser (amongst others) for the Landwirtschaft (German Agricultural Agency) from 1942 onwards. After the war, the building was converted into a family home (Netherlands Institute for Military History - NIMH, Netherlands Ministry of Defense).

(Thanks to mr Jaap Woortman of the Documentation Group Volkel for getting me on the right track on some facts about Peest).