Stolp-West

54°27'08"N 016°59'50"E

flying field: n/a - 0000x00m - grass

Stolp West airfield (German: Flugplatz Stolp(-West), polish: Lotniska Słupsk(-Zachód)) was an airfield 360 kilometers northwest of Warsaw.
Aviation had come to Stolp before World War I. Late in the summer of 1912 flight demonstrations by two monoplanes and a double decker took place on the military training grounds just outside town.
The actual airfield Stolp opened in 1916, but construction went on until 1919. It became a flying school for the German armed forces. It trained student pilots from Hungary, Austria, and Germans from all over the coutry. After the Versailles Treaty the airfield was closed.
The field reopened as a civilian airport in 1920 and attracted many civilian aircraft. It became a vital connection on the line to East-Prussia, disconnected by land from mainland Germany by the 'Polish Corridor'. Old wartime German double deckers were used to set up the services over the sea to Pillau. Effectively it became the first 'air bridge' in history and many hundreds of Germans used it to connect to their fatherland.
In 1921 the Pomeranian Air Traffic Company (Gesellschaft Luftverkehr- Pommern GmbH) was founded and Stolp became part of their network. Deutschen Luft Hansa began flying to the airport in 1926. That same year a large hangar, capable of taking 6 aircraft was built. In 1927 the airfield served as an intermediate on the line between Berlin and the Free City of Danzig (present day Gdansk).


An air display at Stolp in August 1918 (Stolp.de)


Flugplatz Stolp, displayed on a 1928 map as Flugpl. (lower left corner)

Glider flying was introduced to Stolp in 1929. A glider school founded in 1930 attracted pilots from all over Europe. In 1931 it had grown so fast, its facilities needed to be expanded .
The airfield was replaced by the new Fliegerhorst Stolp-Reitz in the second half of the 1930s. This did not shut down the airfield, though. It remained an active sports airfield, especially for the para-military Deutschen Luftfahrt Verband, and was now known as Stolp-West.
During World War II it was expanded and renamed Fliegerhorst Stolp-West. Although the airfield had no units of its own assigned, it played an important role as an intermediate, sometimes attracting as many as 200 aircraft a day.
For some time, it was home to II/StG2 "Immelmann" (Ju-87B) between May and September 1939.
Briefly in August and September 1939 it was home to I./Trägergruppe (TrGr) 186, also equipped with Ju-87B.
The navalised Ju-87B divebombers intended for service on board Germany's aircraft carrier 'Graf Zeppelin'.
In January 1940 it became home to the second squadron of the third Fighter School (II./Jagdfliegerschule3).
The replacement squadron of Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (Erg./St.G 2) "Immelmann" relieved them in December 1940 and remained until the following March.
Between 31 March and 26 June 1944 3./JG103 was stationed at the airfield.
Between mid-October and mid-November 1944 7./JG103 was stationed at the airfield.
They were replaced with 5./JG103 until February 1945.
Amazingly Stolp never attracted the attention of Allied bomber planners. The airfield was blown up on 8 March 1945 in order to prevent the undamaged airfield from falling into enemy hands.

During the communist times Stolp-West was built over with residential blocks and an industrial area. Alledgedly, only a garage remains of the former airfield. It was used as sports arena for several years. Today, it is abandoned and no one takes care of It


Stolp-West (in red) in 2006 (Google Earth)

Thank you to Clive Burkinshaw for adding a more detailed list of Luftwaffe units stationed at the airfield.