The 22nd Air Base (Polish language: 22. Baza Lotnicza
) is an Air Force Base east of Malbork, Poland, near the village of Królewo Malborskie. It was officially constituted on 1 January 2001, replacing the disbanded 41st Fighter Aviation Regiment. The main unit based there is the 41st Air Tactical Squadron flying MiG-29 fighters.
| Marienburg Focke-Wulf factory | |
|---|---|
| Part of Nazi Germany | |
 B-17s destroyed all but one of the buildings at the Marienburg Focke-Wulf factory on October 9, 1943.[1]:280 | |
| Site history | |
| Battles/wars | Operation Pointblank (WWII) |
 strike and recon images | |
|
Before 1943 bombing | |
|
After 1943 bombing | |
|
2009 photo gallery |
External imagesHistory[]
The Marienburg, Germany, area had a 1929 civilian airfield near Königsdorf that was acquired by the Luftwaffe in 1934.[2] Near the airfield was a 100-acre (0.40 km2) Focke-Wulf plant that had been moved from Bremen and which produced approximately half of all Focke-Wulf Fw 190s,[3] and the Stalag XX-B POW camp was nearby.[1] A US Eighth Air Force air raid of the on October 9, 1943, by 96 B-17 Flying Fortresses[4] was called the Marienburg raid by Life magazine.[5] The plant was attacked a 2nd time by 98 B-17s on April 9, 1944.[4] Post-war, Marienburg, Germany, became Malbork, Poland; and Soviet Air force units were based there[specify]
for a few years.[when?] In 1952 the 41st Fighter Aviation Regiment was formed to be based there, initially equipped with Mig-15 fighters, later replaced with Mig-17s, and from 1964 Mig-21s.[6] In 2001 the regiment was dissolved and its ground and air components separated, to form the 22 Air Base[Clarification needed] and 41st Air Tactical Squadron respectively. In 2003 the last Mig-21s were retired, and in 2004 the squadron was rearmed with refurbished Mig-29s obtained from Germany.
References[]
- ↑ Coffey, Thomas M. (1977). "Decision over Schweinfurt: The U.S. 8th Air Force Battle for Daylight Bombing". New York: David McKay Company. pp. 280, 465. "The Germans were caught by surprise at Marienburg … which was so far east they didn't realize it had to be defended … Only one building of the factory [was] not destroyed" on October 9, 1943. (p. 465)
- ↑ (Polish) "Historia - Ryszard Rząd". http://www.visitmalbork.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=292&Itemid=10. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
- ↑ Gurney, Gene (Major, USAF) (1962). "The War in the Air: a pictorial history of World War II Air Forces in combat". New York: Bonanza Books. p. 219.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 McKillop, Jack. "Combat Chronology of the USAAF". Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070610115615/http://www.usaaf.net/chron/index.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-25. October 1943, April 1944
- ↑ "U.S. Bombing: Arnold calls the Marienburg raid the best example of precision bombing" (pdf). November 8, 1943. p. 119. http://books.google.ca/books?id=A1cEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA119. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
- ↑ 41st Air Tactical Squadron official page
Coordinates: 54°01′36″N 19°08′11″E / 54.02667°N 19.13639°E
The original article can be found at 22nd Air Base and the edit history here.