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Deelen Air Base lies in a wooded corner of the Hoge Veluwe National Park north of Arnhem, a former Luftwaffe fighter base now kept alive as a Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force helicopter training site. Its single hard runway, extensive wartime infrastructure and links to the Battle of Arnhem make it a fascinating stop for the historically minded VFR pilot, even though it now sees only intermittent military activity.
Deelen Air Base sits in the forests of the Hoge Veluwe National Park a short distance north of Arnhem, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Operated by the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force, it began life in 1913 as a modest border-patrol strip and grew into one of the most heavily developed Luftwaffe fighter bases in occupied Europe. Today it survives as a helicopter training and forward-operating site rather than a full-time flying station, which gives it an unusually quiet, atmospheric character for a field with so much history packed into its runway and dispersal pans.
The airfield lies within Dutch military airspace in Gelderland, close to Arnhem, with the town of Wolfheze immediately to its south and the Hoge Veluwe National Park surrounding much of the site. The glider field at Terlet lies very close by, and pilots operating in the area should expect to share the local sky with glider traffic as well as any military helicopter activity from Deelen itself.
Deelen has a single hard-surfaced runway, oriented 01/19, lit along its length. The published data show a length of 3,432 ft from the 01 threshold and 2,530 ft from the 19 threshold, with an ILS serving runway 19; the difference in the two figures reflects a displaced or shortened usable length at one end since the runway's original wartime construction. Field elevation is 154 ft.
Deelen provides Approach on 120.305 MHz, ATIS on 133.555 MHz, Delivery on 121.705 MHz and Tower on 118.705 MHz. Runway 19 is equipped with an ILS.
The base is readily identified from the air by its position within the dense forest of the Hoge Veluwe National Park, with the village of Wolfheze and its former wartime railway line to the south, and the city of Arnhem a short distance to the south-east. The nearby Terlet Airfield, used almost exclusively by gliders, is a useful landmark for confirming position when approaching Deelen from the south.
Deelen was founded in 1913 as an auxiliary airfield supporting flying operations from Soesterberg, with unpaved strips intended for border-patrol duties alongside a similar site at Nieuw Milligen. These original runways were deliberately ploughed under in early 1940 to deny their use to invading German forces, but after the occupation the Luftwaffe transformed the site into Fliegerhorst Deelen, expanding it northward into the Ede municipality and into the Hoge Veluwe park itself. The Germans built an distinctive 'A'-shaped runway system to the most modern Luftwaffe standards, complete with camouflage measures and bomb protection, and it served as headquarters of 1. Jagd Division (later 3. Jagd Division) from May 1942. Fighter and night-fighter units flying the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88 operated from the field, defended by Flak Gruppen, and from 1942 a dedicated railway spur linked the base to the Arnhem-Utrecht line, feeding both the command bunker and later the base's munitions needs. In 1944, in preparation for the Battle of Arnhem, Allied bombing raids forced the Luftwaffe to abandon flying operations, and the site was reduced to an auxiliary field and a storage depot for V-1 flying bombs; all military activity had ceased by March 1945. After the war the base became a storage ground for Allied war materiel, notably tens of thousands of Canadian vehicles, before being restored to operational status in 1950. Between 1957 and 1962 (some sources give 1963) it was home to 306 Squadron's RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance aircraft, and after their conversion to RF-104G Starfighters the squadron continued to use Deelen as a dispersal field from Volkel. Light aircraft and helicopter units, including the Light Aviation Group's 299 and 300 Squadrons, flew Hiller UH-12 Ravens, de Havilland Beavers, Piper Cubs, Alouette II/III helicopters and MBB Bo-105s from the base between the 1960s and 1990s, and from the late 1970s Deelen was home to the Grasshoppers, the RNLAF's official helicopter aerobatic display team. The base also supported the adjacent Air Force Electronics and Technical School and the Royal Non-Commissioned Officer School. In December 1988 militant pacifists broke into the base and set fire to several helicopters, destroying four without casualties. In the early 1990s plans for the International Air Tattoo to be held at Deelen collapsed after environmentalists successfully challenged the permissions granted, and no such event has since been held on the European mainland. The Cold War's end brought closure in 1995, after which the runway's top surface was removed, downgrading the site to a Military Aviation Terrain no longer suitable for heavy aircraft.
Since 1995 Deelen has operated as a Military Aviation Terrain rather than a full-time air base, principally supporting helicopter training and serving as a forward operating base for exercises involving aircraft such as the Boeing AH-64 Apache, Boeing CH-47 Chinook and Eurocopter AS532 Cougar, none of which are permanently based there. The field becomes fully operational only when exercises are under way. Part of the runway has since been resurfaced, including a slope constructed for helicopter sloped-landing practice, reflecting the base's increased role as helicopter traffic was shifted here from Gilze-Rijen following the closure of Soesterberg. Glider activity also takes place at the field, and the neighbouring Terlet Airfield operates almost exclusively for gliders.
