Wheelus Air Base

The airfield was constructed in 1923 and used by the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force). In 1933 the roads around the airfield and the neighbouring Mellaha Lake became the home for the Tripoli Grand Prix motor race. Mellaha was used by the German Luftwaffe during the North African Campaign for short-range reconnaissance units, and coastal and naval reconnaissance units. Special weather reconnaissance units were also based at Mehalla. The main Luftwaffe unit stationed at the base was the 2nd Staffel of the Aufklärungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14. The squadron was equipped with 12 single-engine Henschel Hs 126, an aircraft with 2-man crews, which could cover approx 710 km, with a maximum speed of 360 km/h, as well as three Fieseler Fi 156 Storch liaison aircraft, and a Junkers Ju 52 for transport of men and materiel. The airfield was captured by the British Eighth Army in January 1943. The United States Army Air Forces began using Mellaha the same month. It was used by the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the 12th Air Force to launch Consolidated B-24 Liberators to bomb Italy and southern parts of Germany. In addition, Mellaha Field was used by Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en route to Benina Airport near Benghazi or to Tunis Airport, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. On 15 April 1945, Mellaha AAF was taken over by USAAF’s Air Training Command. It was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field (AAF) on 17 May 1945 in honor of USAAF Lieutenant Richard Wheelus who had died earlier that year in a plane crash in Iran. == Cold War usage by the USAF ==

Wheelus AAF was closed on 15 May 1947, then reopened as Wheelus Air Base (Wheelus AB) on 1 June 1948 and transferred to the USAF Military Air Transportation Service (MATS). Its host unit under MATS was the 1603rd Air Transport Wing. With the crowning of Idris I in 1951, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)-based fighter-bomber units also began using Wheelus AB and its nearby El Uotia Gunnery Range for gunnery and bombing training. A further agreement between the United States and Libya, signed in 1954, granted the US the use of Wheelus and its gunnery range until December 1971. With its 4,600 Americans, the US Ambassador to Libya once called it "a Little America...on the sparkling shores of the Mediterranean," although temperatures at the base frequently reached 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (43 to 50 degrees Celsius). Military Air Transport Service use MATS activated the 1603rd Air Transport Wing at Wheelus on 1 June 1948. The wing flew Douglas C-47 Skytrain and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus, and operated the base transport control center until 1952. Headquarters, 7th Air Rescue Group, was assigned to Wheelus along with the 58th Air Rescue Squadron at about this time. They flew SA-16s and H-19s. The 56th Air Rescue Squadron, stationed at Sidi Slimane, Morocco, the 57th Air Rescue Squadron stationed at Lajes Field, Azores, and the 59th Air Rescue Squadron, stationed at Dhahran Air Base, Saudi Arabia, were also part of the group. The 58th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron operated out of Wheelus until 1970 when they were relocated to the 67th ARRSQ in the UK. The 58 ARRS flew three HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopters, and three HC-130 refueling tankers. MATS aircraft and personnel from Wheelus participated in Operation Hajji Baba in 1952. Also in 1952 the MATS 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing was reassigned to Wheelus from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The Wing (later Group) flew special operations in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Southwest Asia until being inactivated in 1956. The MATS presence was withdrawn and relocated to Rhein-Main Air Base, West Germany in January 1953. MATS and later Military Airlift Command aircraft were frequent visitors at Wheelus and maintained a small detachment there until the base's closure in 1970. == After 1970 ==

Following the US withdrawal, the base was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Airfield (seemingly after the legendary hero Uqba ibn Nafi) and was used by the Soviet Union, as well as served as the headquarters for the Libyan Air Force. The base was bombed by the US in 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon. The airfield was subsequently renamed Mitiga International Airport. ==References==