Brekstad Airport, Ørland

( _no. Brekstad lufthavn, Ørland) is a civilian section of Ørland Main Air Station with regional aircraft services to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen with Air Norway. Airport operations are split between the Royal Norwegian Air Force (military operations) and Municipality of Ørland (civilian operations).__NOTOC__

History

World War II

Ørland Main Air Station was built by the occupation forces in 1941 during the German occupation of Norway in World War II, using Prisoners of war. The Germans wanted an airfield so that they could terrorize the allied convoys to Murmansk. At first German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor"s were stationed here. In June 1942, a squadron of Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka"s rebased here, later a squadron of Messerschmitt Bf 109s and then a squadron of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters.

The Germans decided to expand the airfield, and in addition to the runway they built first they made another one in 1944. This was later made the main runway. The Germans then made several taxiways and started planning a third runway. However, the war ended before the plans could be completed. 7000 Germans were stationed at Ørlandet during the war, with about 10 000 Prisoners of war as a work force. This meant that, at the end of the war, the Germans left a fully armed, defended airfield with docks, infrastructure and a cannon taken from the battleship "Gneisenau".

Post War

After the war, a Norwegian Spitfire squadron was stationed here, but in 1946 the airfield was closed. All buildings were torn down and the wood transported to northern Norway to help rebuild Finnmark which the Germans had left in ruins. After that, the airfield was used for sporadic exercises.

It wasn't until 1950 that the government decided that the airfield should be made a permanent deployment-airfield. In 1952, a new runway had been made, and in 1954, it was expanded to handle NATO forces. It was then the airfield got today's looks. In October 1954, Squadron 338 was rebased from Sola and remains as the only fighter force at the airfield.

In the summer of 1958, the SAM battery was established, and in August 1970, the detachment from Squadron 330 arrived. In November 1983, the airfield was customized to handle the NATO E-3A AWACS which routinely visits from Geilenkirchen to sustain the surveillance chain at the NATO border.

Airlines and destinations

* Air Norway (Oslo)