Error : Confusion between Vitry-en-Artois (B-50, northern France) and Vitry-le-François (A-67, Champagne region).
German use during World War II A small grass airfield prior to World War II, it was seized by the Germans in late May 1940. After its capture, Vitry-En-Artois was used by the Luftwaffe as a combat airfield during the
Battle of France. As part of the
Blitzkrieg, the Germans assigned the following units to the airfield during the battle, carrying out air attacks on the defending French and British Expeditionary Force: • Jagdgeschwader 54 (JS 54) 28 May – 6 June 1940
Messerschmitt Bf 109E • Jagdgeschwader 51 (JS 51) 1–9 June 1940
Messerschmitt Bf 109E • Lehrgeschwader 1 (LG 1) 14–25 June 1940
Junkers Ju 88A After the
Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June, the Luftwaffe moved Kampfgeschwader 53 (KG 53) to the airfield on 12 July. KG 53 was a
Heinkel He 111 medium bomber unit that participated in the ensuing
Battle of Britain, remaining assigned to Vitry until 18 June 1941.
Allied use Vitry-en-Artois was cleared of German forces in late August 1944 by elements of the
First Canadian Army. Before withdrawing, hangars, buildings, electrical generators, water treatment and other facilities that had not yet been destroyed by Allied bombing, were blown up by German combat engineers. After capture by Allied forces, Airfield Construction Teams from the
Royal Engineers and
No. 85 Group RAF cleared and repaired the airfield to bring it back to operational status as
Advanced Landing Ground "B-50". B-50 was used by the following RAF units, and as a marshalling and assembly area for transport units for elements of the
First Allied Airborne Army during
Operation Varsity in March 1945. •
No. 184 Squadron RAF, 4–15 September 1944 (
Hawker Typhoon IB) •
No. 226 Squadron RAF "Sussex Missions" (
No. 137 Wing RAF), 17 October 1944 – 22 April 1945 (
Mitchell II) •
No. 88 (Hong Kong) Squadron RAF (No. 137 Wing), 17 October 1944 – 6 April 1945 (
Douglas Boston III & IV) •
No. 342 (GB I/20 'Lorraine') Squadron RAF "FAFL Groupe Lorraine" (No. 137 Wing), 17 October 1944 – 22 April 1945 (Douglas Boston III & IV, Mitchell II) With the war ended, it was also used as a storage area for surplus allied (mostly American) aircraft after the war by
Air Technical Service Command. Vitry-en-Artois was returned to French control on 18 December 1945.
Postwar In French control after the war, the airfield sat abandoned for years. There was much unexploded ordnance at the site which needed to be removed, as well as the wreckage of German and Allied aircraft. All of the buildings at the base were destroyed by the Allied air attacks or demolition, and although some had been repaired, most were in ruins. The French Air Force wanted nothing to do with a Nazi airfield on French soil, and as a result, the Air Ministry leased the land, concrete runways, structures and all, out to farmers for agricultural use, sending in unexploded ordnance teams to remove the dangerous munitions. Eventually the facility was cleared of much of the rubble and ruins of the German airfield. Concrete taxiways, parking ramps and dispersal pads were removed and turned into hardcore aggregate, eventually clearing the land which was leased to farmers for agricultural fields. Relics of both wartime runways still exist, and single-lane agricultural roads are the remains of some of the former taxiways. The runways are still littered with bomb craters, now grown in by soil and grass and other vegetation. At some time in more recent years, a small General Aviation airfield was established south of the wartime air base, along the D950. It had minimal facilities, and no connection to the wartime field. On 8 March 2024 this airfield was closed, allowing development of a wind-turbine farm. In the autumn of 2025, a new runway 18/36 was created, solely for use by
ultralight aircraft. ==References==