Aerodrome in Wynghene (Wingene ; West-Flanders ; Belgium)

[Wingene]

Is there anybody that has information about the aerodrome in Wynghene during the great war? The aerodrome was also called Ondank. Today the village is called Wingene situated in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

The aerodrome was created and used by the German airforce.

The following units were located at the aerodrome for some period:

Jasta 3

Jasta 7

Jasta 28

Jasta 33

Jasta 37

FAA 224

Schusta 4

Schusta 12

possebly these units also but I am not sure of this:

FA 238

FAA 233

FAA 238

Schusta 16

there was also a deadly crash of a plane near the aerodrome from Leutnant Kuke Fritz born in Dirschau 14.03.1886 and died on 19.11.1917.

On 11 September 1917 there seemed to be a heavy bombing of the aerodrome with damage on 4 planes and one civilian badly wounded.

Horn Walter (Feldwebel) born in Serkowitz on 12.07.1891 from Jasta 37 seems to have crashed in Wynghene and died 04.12.1917 but the circumstances are not clear.

Thanks for information

[IanA]

Hi Wingene and welcome to the forum,

I can't be of much help I'm afraid, but thought your post was starting to look rather lonely . I have two of the excellent 'Airfields and Airmen' books by Mike O'Connor which cover the Ypres area (Nieuport, Dunkirk, Bethune, Gent) and the Channel Coast (Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Gent, Lille) and Wynghene or Ondank are not mentioned. I will keep my eyes open and at least this posting will have the effect of boosting your post back up to the top!

Good luck!

Ian

[Wingene]

Hello Ian,

thanks for helping me,

on my search I found that Ernst Udet was commandant of Jasta 37 on the airfield of Wynghene, he became commandant Nov 7, 1917 of this Jasta and he left Wynghene on March 15, 1918.

Udet was the highest scoring German ace to survive World War I with 62 victories.

This information is really important because he is one of the most famous aces of the war.

greetings

Tom

[IanA]

Hi Tom,

I've just got back to my seat after going upstairs to check my maps (a major undertaking - broken ankle!) and I now see why Wynghene didn't feature in 'The Channel Coast'!!!

Your Udet information may be useful in prompting more replies.

Cheers,

Ian

[IanA]

Hi Tom,

Have you tried

http://www.theaerodrome.com

There are threads on their forum containing information about security at Wynghene and someone flying into the church tower when trying to impress a local girl.

Ian

[Wingene]

Yes,

that was my great great grandmother

no serious, I read about the story, but is it a fact or only a myth,

greetings

[IanA]

I didn't really follow the thread (was it from 2004?) but I think if you registered with the forum you may be able to follow it up and find out. I think the source was a Spanish guy who was doing some serious research on Wynghene. Worth the effort, I think.

If the aerobatics had worked you might have had a different accent.

Ian

[Wingene]

Ian,

I found it, the guy seems to be Marco_Sommerau, I hope to get more information from him,

by the way do you have any idea where I could find some pictures (on the internet) from the airfield? I have only one picture of the local people that worked on the airfield.

greetings

[IanA]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

I don't have any ideas about photos but I will let you know if I come across any. With the Udet connection, there must be some out there! I wonder whether there are any biographies of Udet with photos?

Best of luck,

Ian

[IanA]

A swift internet book search comes up with "Mein Flieger Leiben" by Udet which has 33 black & white photos. The English version is "Ace of the Iron Cross". Don't know if it includes the airfield at Wynghene.

Ian

[Wingene]

Ian,

the book : The Jasta Pilots: Detailed Listings and Histories, August 1916-November 1918 (Hardcover)

by Norman Franks, Frank Bailey, Rick Diuven

seems also very interesting, but I looked with www.amazon.com and it is not available anymore. I think that I will have to search in second hand book shops.

Tom

[IanA]

Hi Tom,

Much better to search AddALL - there are many copies of the Udet autobiography at varying prices.

Cheers,

Ian

[IanA]

Hi Tom,

You may have done this already but I just checked the on-line catalogue of the Imperial War Museum aerial photos etc and Wynghene/Wingene does not appear there. Given its location, might it have been in the French sphere?

Ian

[Wingene]

Indeed, it is much better to look for it on the net

abebooks.com looks also interesting, it looks like a combination of different booksellers.

I do not think that the airfield has something to do with the French army,

for the location of Wingene, you can use this site: http://www.uk.map24.com/

it is almost in the middle of the triangle Brugge / Gent / Kortrijk

in the Flemish (Vlaams) part of Belgium (België)

for recent air photos you can look on this site:

http://www.giswest.be/artman/publish/cat_index_75.html

just zoom in

greetings

[IanA]

Hi Tom,

Just to clear any misunderstanding - I did not mean to say that it had anything to do with the French Army - just that I guess that the Germans were opposed to the French in that area (rather than the British). Therefore any aerial reconnaissance photos which still exist may be in a French archive rather than a British one.

Cheers,

Ian

[Cnock]

Hello,

FA 32 at Wingene in october 1917.

Regards,

Cnock