Wenzendorf

53°20'15"N 009°46'47"E

Runway: 03/21 - 800meters/...feet - Grass
Runway: 06/24 - 370meters/...feet - Grass

Glider airfield Wenzendorf (german: Segelfluggelände Wenzendorf) is an airfield 10km west of the city of Buchholz in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The airfield is on the northwestern edge what was the Blohm&Voss (B&V) Wenzendorf plant between 1933 and 1945.
Back then the airfield was much larger and of sexagon shape.
The airfield has been in existence since 1933 and was constructed specifically as a factory airfield.
In 1935 Hermann Görings Reichsluftministerium (State Air Ministry) ordered Blohm & Voss subsidiary Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) to build a plant at Wenzendorf.
It was intended to be used for the final assembly and repair of aircraft.
The plant opened in September 1935 on a grass airfield with concrete platforms.
Between 1935 and 1940 the plant turned out over 600 military aircraft of designs by Dornier and Junkers.
During the war the plant constructed both their own designs (suck as the BV141 observation plane) and those of others (such as the Me262 two seat jet fighter).





Wenzendorf ca 1939






BV142-V2 (D-ABUV "Kastor", werkenr. 219) at Wenzendorf ca 1939 (photo supplied via email).


A lesser known product of B&V was the design and construction of the 'Wunderwaffen' by the air vehicle design department.
One of those products, carrying the cynical name of 'Friedensengel'(Peace Angel), was the BV950 Gliding Torpedo.
On their own initiative they also designed a glide bomb capable of hitting English cities when launched from great altitudes..
It was proposed as a replacement for the 'poor performing' V-1, and according to the memoires of the designer, Hitleer and Speer were amazed when he showed the plans at the Obersalzberg residence of Hitler in 1943.
B & V built 400 examples of the weapon at Wenzendorf and through licence deals another 600 were built, designated as BV246.
Fortunately the weapon never managed to be used operationally, however.
Wenzendorf was reported to have used slave labour from the Neuengamme concentration camp.
The airfield and the plant were almost completely destroyed during an aerial attack by the 447th Bomber Group in 1944.
In early May 1945 British forces took control of the airfield.
At the airfield they discovered a large number of Me262 hulks.






9 April 1945 reconnaissance photo of a very cratered Wenzendorf airfield (photo supplied via email)






A page of a declassifield intelligence report showing empty hulks of Me262s at Wenzendorf in summer 1945 (photo supplied via email)






British artillery (likely M-1 Long Toms) parked at Wenzendorf in summer 1945 (photo supplied via email)


The British decided they had no use for the airfield, so they dismantled it.
The remaining buildings on the northern side of the airfield were put to good use, for instance as a home for elderly people.
In the early 1960s the airfield was rediscovered by the HFB-Fluggemeinschaft and partially redeveloped back into an airfield
Ever since it has been a glider field.
Some of the foundations of the old plant and hangars can still be recognised in the field.






Wenzendorf around 2009 (Google Earth), the former airfield and housing area in green, the current runways in yellow.