German Air Force Patch 63 LTG Lufttransportgeschwader 1a Wing

German Air Force Patch Lufttransportgeschwader LTG 63 Transport Wing Bee Transall C 160 1970 Hohn AB Embroidered on twill cut edge 108mm by 81mm four and one quarter inches by three and three sixteenth inches.

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History   

Lufttransportgeschwader LTG 63 Air Transport Wing 63 was activated on 15 September 1961 at Celle Air Base equipped with Nord 2501 Noratlas transport aircraft to provide military transport medevac airborne special forces tactical training tasking together with civilian accident and rescue support.

The Wing comprised three a Headquarters and Groups Flying Group Technical Group and Aerodrome Group. Flying Group controls the two flying Squadrons of the Wing 631 and 632. Technical Group provided aircraft technical services including maintenance and repair weapons and ammunition survival equipment fuelling fire protection while Aerodrome Group provided non-aeronautical activities and tasks including transportation supplies medical services Aerodrome security and defence runway and airfield repair.

At the Wings public open day on 21 June 1964 the Wing was officially presented with its emblem of a cartoon bumble bee on a blue shield to reflect the usually heavily laden and the noisy nature of the insect in flight with the transport aircraft employed by the wing.

In addition to its military support duties the Wing regularly undertook emergency humanitarian relief and fire fighting operations following earthquakes floods and famine in Europe Middle East and Africa.

LTG 63 relocated to the Hugo Junkers army barracks Hohn Air Base in September 1967 and began conversion to Transall C 160 in 1968 completing the transition in 1970 with 27 aircraft. The wing added Do 28 Skyservant transport aircraft to its fleet in 1971 and 632 Squadron established The Hamburg Rescue Centre at Hohn AB in 1973 to provide emengency medevac services for the city equipped with UH 1D Huey helicopters. LTG 63 deployed aircraft overseas for aid flights in response to the famine in Ethiopia and Sudan in 1984 where it helped develop an extremely low altitude cargo drop procedure. The Wings Do 28 Skyservant aircraft were retired in 1987.

In 1992 the Wing began regular airlift operations to besieged Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia where pilots developed the Sarajevo Approach whereby the aircraft remained high above the city for as long as possible and then diving for the runway at the last moment. As part of budget cuts the German defence Department inactivated HTG 64 and assigned its UH 1D helicopters and personnel to LTG 61 62 and 63. LTG 63 received nineteen UH 1D helicopters from HTG 64 3 Squadron Seefliegerstaffel on its disbandment on 1 April 1994 which were assigned to 2 Squadron LTG 63 which took over HTG 64s sea flying tasking assisting the German Navy with Sea Survival and SAR training providing SAR services over coastal waters and providing short haul air transport. The Wing completed its deployments to Sarajevo when the siege was lifted in 1996.

The Wing deployed to and constructed the German Air Transport Base in Termez Uzbekistan in January 2002 initially operating alone providing German ISAF troop staging and air bridge including Medevac to and from Afghanistan and transport support and battlefield Medevac in Afghanistan before rotational deployments with LTG 61 and 62 commenced in September 2002.

The deployed aircraft relocated to Camp Marmal Mazar e Sharif Air Base Afghanistan on 30 August 2008 with the air bridge to Termez continuing. 2 squadron of LTG 63 with its UH 1D Huey helicopters was inactivated in December 2010 with its assets transferred to form part of the reactivated HSG 64 Helicopter Wing 64. LTG 63 deployed to support the French Operation Serval combat missions against Islamist insurgents in Northern Mali in spring 2013.

LTG 63 continued its rotational deployments for the air bridge to Termez until 1 April 2014 when Lufttransportgeschwader LTG 63 was reroled as the transport aircraft training Wing with all practical and theoretical C 130 Transall training being undertaken at Hohn with training on the Transall C 160 flight simulator undertaken by LTG 63 at Wunstorf Air Base.

This patch dates from 1970.