The
history of Schleswig-Jagel starts back in 1935, when both Schleswig-Land
and Schleswig-See served as trainig grounds for land based aircraft
and seaplanes of Fliergersatzabteilung 16 (See). Due to a direct
order by Hermann Goering no "real" Marineflieger existed - they
were incorparted into the Luftwaffe and were known as Luftwaffe
See.
The unit consisted of Fw 44 Stieglitz and Ar 66 bi-planes at Jagel
and He 59 and He 60 seaplanes at Schleswig-See ("Freiheit"). These
aircraft were soon accompanied by a variety of Luftwaffe units
flying Do-23, He 51 and He 46. All of these units were temporarily
based at Schleswig for trainig purposes.
With the outbreak of World War 2, Schleswig-Land soon became a
major bomber base, providing home for He-111 and Ju-88 medium
bombers of Kampfgeschwader 26 "Loewengeschwader", KG 30 "Adlergeschwader"
and the Lehrgeschwader. In april 1940 the units redeployed in
support of the Battle of Britain and gave way for a fleet of Ju-52
transport aircraft.
In
the course of the war Schleswig's role changed as it became a
major nightfighter base - it would remain so until the end of
the war. Operations started when in may 1941 II./NJG 1 and soon
after Hptm. Streib's I./NJG 1 moved to Schleswig. The airfield
was now part of the so-called Kammhuber-Linie - the defenceline
of the western shores.
In december parts of NJG 3 deployed to the airfield, with II./NJG
3 staying at the base until the end of the war. It was by that
time, that Schleswigs Bf 110 nightfighters were equipped with
onboard-radar. These aircraft were soon after complemented by
specially modified Do-217 and Ju-88 nightfighters. It should not
go unmentioned that during the following years the high-scoring
nightfighter ace Hptm. Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein acted as commanding
officer at Jagel.
The installations at Schleswig-See were mainly used as a stopover
chance for longrange observation flyingboats and SAR units for
both Northsea and the Baltic.
The last missions of the war were commenced by a group of NJG
1 equipped with the modern He-219 UHU - an aircraft especially
designed to fight british Mosquito bombers.
At
the end of the war, Jagel became homeground for a squadron of
RAF Hawker Typhoon fighterbombers, who moved to the airfield on
4th may 1945. From now on the RAF were owners of the airfield.
Between november 1947 and 12th june 1948 Jagel served as the northern
post in the Berlin airbridge campaign conducted by the allies.
Up to 32 four-engined heavy aircraft operated from the airfield
during this period.
The last RAF units left Jagel in 1958, when the airfiled was handed
over to the newly founded Marineflieger. Ironically, the last
british aircraft to leave Jagel were Mosquitos - the former direct
opponent of the last german aircraft, the He-219.
In
the following years both MFG 1 and MFG 2 operated out of Jagel,
until MFG 2 moved to Nordholz in 1962. Since then MFG 1 was the
only occupant of Germany's largest military airfield until the
unit's disbandment on 31st december 1993.
Nevertheless
the majority of the unit's aircraft and crews stayed at the airfield
in order to form the core of the re-established Aufklaerungsgeschwader
51 "Immelmann" of the Bundesluftwaffe.
