Vernouillet Airport
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Vernouillet Airport Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) A-41 |
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| Location | Vernouillet, France | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 443 ft / 135 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 48°42′22″N 001°21′42″E / 48.70611°N 1.36167°E | ||||||||||
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 LFON
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Vernouillet Airport is a regional airport in France (ICAO: LFON), close to the town of Vernouillet, Eure-et-Loir. It supports general aviation with no commercial airline service scheduled.
Dreux airport was built in the 1920s as a grass airfield. In the 1930s it was upgraded to include two concrete runways, a primary 02/20 at 1692 m (5500 ft) and a secondary 12/30 at 1354 m (4400 ft). In addition, a control tower, terminal and a hangar provided services to passengers and aircraft.
The French Air Force Armée de l'Air used Dreux during the Battle of France. The Polish squadron G.C. I/145 was transferred north from Lyon Mions Airport to Dreux Vernouillet Airport during the later phases of the Battle of France. I/145 operated Caudron CR.714 fighter planes in air defence roles until France was over-run and Dreux was seized by the Germans in June 1940.
Seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the Battle of France, Dreux was used as a Luftwaffe military airfield during the occupation. Known units assigned (all from Luftlotte 3, Fliegerkorps IV):
KG 55 took part in the Battle of Britain and subsequent night bombing raids on England. KG 51 was a fighter/bomber unit, and along with SKG 10 and JG 3, attacked Eighth Air Force daylight heavy bomber raids over Occupied Europe and Germany.
Largely due to its use as a base for Fw-190 interceptors, Dreux was attacked by USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauder medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolts mostly with 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers (B-17s, B-24s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base. The attacks were timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers. Also the P-51 Mustang fighter-escort groups of Eighth Air Force would drop down on their return to England and attack the base with a fighter sweep and attack any target of opportunity to be found at the airfield.
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Wikipedia