In 1936, Luftwaffe Headquarters in Berlin designated Wiesbaden Airfield as a fliegerhorst or air base. Construction of the military kaserne, the runway and hangar complex was completed in 1938 and the first German military unit, the famous "Ace of Spades" fighter wing, occupied Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden was used by the Luftwaffe throughout the second World War as a fighter and bomber base. At the peak of its use as many as 40 bombers took off every 3 hours on assigned bombing missions. Naturally, Wiesbaden was the target of numerous allied bombing missions and at one time as many as 76 bomb craters were counted on the runway. To this day unexploded ordnance from those bombing raids is occasionally found during construction projects close to the airfield.



In late March 1945, Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden was abandoned by the Luftwaffe and occupied by advancing American soldiers. U.S. troops remained on Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden after the war, and in September 1947, the U.S. Army Air Corps became a separate service — the U.S. Air Force. At that time in 1948, Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden was designated Wiesbaden Air Base and was the home of Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Europe.