Meautis Airfield

Meautis Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield, which is located near the commune of Méautis in the Normandy region of northern France.

Meautis Airfield
Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) A-17
Basse-Normandie Region, France
Meautis Airfield
Meautis Airfield (France)
Coordinates49°17′07″N 001°18′16″W
TypeMilitary airfield
Site information
Controlled by  United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built byIX Engineering Command
In useAugust–September 1944
MaterialsPrefabricated Hessian Surfacing (PHS)
Battles/warsWestern Front (World War II)
  Northern France Campaign

Located to the east of Méautis, the United States Army Air Force established a temporary airfield on 24 July 1944, shortly after the Allied landings in France The airfield was constructed by the IX Engineering Command, 840th Engineer Aviation Battalion.

History

Known as Advanced Landing Ground "A-17", the airfield consisted of a single 5000' (1500m) Prefabricated Hessian Surfacing/Compressed Earth runway (3600 PHS/1400 ETH) aligned 10/28.

81st Fighter Squadron - P-47 Thunderbolt, Meautis Airfield (A-17), France.

In addition, tents were used for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water and minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting.[1]

The 50th Fighter Group, based P-47 Thunderbolt fighters at Meautis from 15 August though 6 September 1944.[2]

The fighter planes flew support missions during the Allied invasion of Normandy, patrolling roads in front of the beachhead; strafing German military vehicles and dropping bombs on gun emplacements, anti-aircraft artillery and concentrations of German troops in Normandy and Brittany when spotted.

After the Americans moved east into Central France with the advancing Allied Armies, the airfield was closed on 7 September 1944. Today the airfield consists of agricultural fields, likely located to the east of the commune, as a large section of land appears to have an outline of an airfield by its field shapes.[3]

gollark: You know what, I'll ignore this ENTIRELY for now muahahahaha.
gollark: This is in a 130 line function which *kind of* explains what it's doing, but apiaristically.
gollark: It *seemed* like it was just inserting things, but it may also be moving everything after this into the children of the other thingy?
gollark: ```nim var emNode = newDoublyLinkedNode(emToken) for childNode in token.children.nodes: if childNode.value == opener.value.token: emToken.children.head = childNode.next if childNode.next != nil: childNode.next.prev = nil childNode.next = emNode emNode.prev = childNode if childNode.value == closer.value.token: emToken.children.tail = childNode.prev if childNode.prev != nil: childNode.prev.next = nil childNode.prev = emNode emNode.next = childNode```
gollark: This would really be easier if they had actually bothered to put comments in this. I've worked out that it is in fact *not* a `seq.insert` call precisely, but I don't know what it's meant to be doing.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. IX Engineer Command ETO Airfields, Airfield Layout
  2. Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
  3. Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
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