[Bjoris]

There was also an airport in the municipality of Hingene (province of Antwerp, Belgium).

The airfield was already built in 1939 by the Belgian army as an alternate airfield. This was an action of the Belgian government on the increasing threat of neighbouring Germany. On November 11, 1939, the airfield was operational. In January 1940 it was mapped by a German spy plane.

On 13 May 1940 the airfield was bombed by German planes. On May 16 the airfield was evacuated.

On 20 May 1940 aircraft of type Fieseler Storch Fi 156 circled above the airfield where they would land after a while. The first attacking Luftwaffe unit, which would be housed at the Hingene-Wintam airfield, was the II. Kampgeschwader zur besondere Verwendung 1 (II.KGzbV.1).

The German code name for Hingene was "Käseglocke". Hingene fell under the Luftgau Belgien/Nord-Frankreich. In German official documents, Hingene is described as Flugplatzgelände. Usually they spoke of Flugplatz Hingene. The number for the post (Feldpost Luft) was F.P.L.37419. Hingene fell under the Luftgaupost Brüssel.

The General Commander of Flugplatz Hingene was Major Schalcke.
Present staffeln at Hingene:
5. Staffel/II.KGzbV.1
6. Staffel/II.KGzbV.1
7. Staffel/II.KGzbV.1 with Leutnant/Oberleutnant Franz Lankenau
8. Staffel/II.KGzbV.1
(Does anyone have the scale signs of these groups?)

In the second half of 1940 Organisation Todt came to Hingene to strongly expand the airfield. There were 46 airplane pits built, FLAK-racks placed, barracks and sheds and even a village (with church) was copied in wood.

The airport would remain operational until March 1943. Afterwards it was handed over to the Wehrmacht.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator