Qualla: RAF Gütersloh https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:34 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Gütersloh https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh RAF Gütersloh: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit Hewa, CC BY 3.0. Two aircraft on Quick Reaction Alert, fully armed, pilots in the cockpit ready to scramble in two minutes. That was the standing posture at RAF Gütersloh through the long Cold War decades, because Gütersloh was the closest Royal Air Force airfield to the Inner German Border. If anything came across - a defecting MiG, a probing bomber, a thousand Warsaw Pact aircraft at the start of World War III - it would meet the English Electric Lightnings of 19 and 92 Squadrons first. The flying time from Gütersloh to the East German frontier was less than fifteen minutes at fighter cruise. Pilots used to joke that the runway lights were visible from the other side.

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Image: Hewa | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Gütersloh: Built for the Other Side https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit Daniel Brockpähler, CC BY-SA 3.0. The airfield was not built by the British. Construction began in 1935, paid for by the German government, for a paratroop unit flying Junkers Ju 52s. It later served as a radar school. In 1944 and 1945 it housed the night fighters of 5./NJG 2 - Junkers Ju 88s flying as part of th...

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Image: Daniel Brockpähler | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-built-for-the-other-side.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Gütersloh: Y-99 https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit Hewa, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Americans got there first. In April 1945, US ground forces captured the airfield and the Ninth Air Force designated it Advanced Landing Ground Y-99. The engineers laid down a 4,000-foot hardened runway. P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Gr...

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Image: Hewa | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-y-99.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Gütersloh: The Lightning Years https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit wiltshirespotter, CC BY-SA 2.0. From 1958 Gütersloh fell under the operational control of the Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF), the NATO command responsible for the northern half of the Central European front. From 1965 to 1977 the station was home to two squadrons of English Electric Lightning F2/F2A ...

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Image: wiltshirespotter | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-the-lightning-years.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Gütersloh: Harriers in the Woods https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit wiltshirespotter, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the Lightnings withdrew in 1977, Gütersloh became the RAF's principal Harrier base in Germany. 3 Squadron and 4 Squadron flew successive variants of the British Aerospace Harrier II from the station. The Harrier's whole reason for being was the Cold War in central Germany: a...

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Image: wiltshirespotter | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-harriers-in-the-woods.mp3 0:06 5 full RAF Gütersloh: Princess Royal Barracks https://qualla.com/raf-gutersloh/ Photo credit Uwe Steinkolk, CC BY-SA 2.5. When the Harriers left, helicopters took over - Boeing Chinooks of 18 Squadron and Westland Pumas of 230 Squadron. 63 Squadron RAF Regiment defended the base with Rapier surface-to-air missiles. Then, in the post-Wall drawdown, the whole apparatus wound down. RAF Gütersloh closed...

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Image: Uwe Steinkolk | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/j/z/raf-gutersloh-wp/u1jz-raf-g-tersloh-princess-royal-barracks.mp3 0:06 6 full