Schaffen

51°00'15"N005°03'57"E

Runway 24/06 - 750x40m - grass

Schaffen-Diest airfield (Dutch: vliegveld Schaffen-Diest, ICAO: EBDT) is an airfield 55 kilometer northeast of Brussels.
It was originally built in World War I by the German army occupying Belgium.

On the eve of World War II about 50 per cent of the entire Belgian Air Force had gathered at the airfield. Although Schaffen had been on general alert from 7 May 1940, there was a standdown on 9 May 10.30AM. Most of the pilots took the opportunity to relax in nearby Diest. 
At 3AM in the morning of 10 May 1940 the alarm went off. All aircraft were prepared for takeoff around 4AM, and lined up in front of the hangars. A witness described the entire procedure to be like an exercise, in order and without any stress. Just after 4AM formations of aircraft were observed flying west, and it was assumed there was some kind of battle going on between the British and the Germans over the English Channel. As Belgium had been declared neutral for the past 5 years, the pilots did not worry too much.
At 4.32AM, 3 two-engined bombers attacked the airfield, strafing the lined up Belgian aircraft. They were followed almost immediately by fighterbombers, shooting at will. Within minutes the aircraft of the Belgian Air Force were decimated and the airfield was on fire. Ten minutes after the first wave a second wave followed, bombers from 6,000 feet dropped ther bombs to finish off what the earlier wave had left standing. At 5.30AM, a third attacked the airfield.
Only 5 aircraft survived the attacks: two Hurricanes and three Glosters.


damaged Huricane at Schaffen, May 1940 (strijdbewijs.nl).

After the war Schaffen became the location of the EVS (Elementary Flying School, or in Dutch: Elementaire Vliegschool). In 1950 the EVS left for Air Base Goetsenhoven however. Schaffen Air Base has also been the home of the Training Center for Parachutists (TrgC Para) of the Belgian ParaCommandos since 1946. This school is the primary reason the airfield is still nominally an Air Base.


airfield Schaffen (dac.be).