Between Évreux and civil and military aviation, an old story recounted in a book

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It’s a place that is part of Évreux – to the point of being its main employer, with 2,300 soldiers and civilians – but which maintains a certain mystery, behind the long fences, the walls and the embankments which border it.

Airbase 105 lifts the veil in the richly documented and illustrated work which has just been published in the Aerodromes collection by the pen of the editorial team of the Anciens aérodromes association.

Early passion

Christophe Libercé is one of them. Agent of the Department of Eure, this resident of Gauciel is also – as a neighbor – a great enthusiast of the BA 105. Almost obvious when we have seen the planes that land there or take off there.

The passion was born very early. Planes flew overhead at school. We saw this base on a daily basis, but behind these embankments, what is happening? I sought to learn more.

If he admits a particular passion for the American period (NATO established an American base there from 1952 to 1967), Christophe Libercé patiently collected numerous documents, in the Departmental Archives, in the municipal archives, in the archives of the air base museum, and collected testimonies from “old hands” of the place.

“I have worked there for around fifteen years. I had gathered some archives, the question was what to do with them. I then met Daniel Flahaut, a member of the Anciens aérodromes association, who suggested making a book about it. Four years later, he left,” recalls Eurois.

A work for memory

And clearly, the collective work was expected. In any case, it arouses curiosity: without further promotion, 400 copies have already been sold since its publication, at the beginning of September 2024. The co-author sees an explanation: “The air base, it’s a collective story in Évreux. It is part of its heritage, its history. It is also a work for memory. The municipalities of Huest and Gauciel ordered several dozen copies to distribute to their students,” says the man who is also a member of the BA105 museum association.

Ce 11^e issue of the Aerodromes collection is the first to be devoted to an active air base (it is also prefaced by Sébastien Lecornu, very recently Minister of the Armed Forces). But its history is much older, and broader than military use.

We have to go back to the turn of the 1910s to see the start of the history of aviation in Évreux, with the installation of the Bellenger stop (inaugurated in 1913) on a land army maneuvering ground, making Évreux the 9^e air station out of the 53 built then to allow civilian aviators to resupply.

Presence of the Luftwaffe

Civil activity continues with the creation of the Eure flying club in 1929 then the Évreux-Le Coudray aerodrome in 1934. Before the Second World War, the Amiot company installed there an aircraft assembly plant.

During the conflict, a flight school was established in 1940, quickly replaced by Luftwaffe units. “Gradually, the base occupied by the Luftwaffe will evolve significantly. From 700 ha before the war, it will extend over the villages of Huest, Gauciel and Fauville as well as the district of Nétreville, encompassing fields and houses over 1,500 ha,” the book tells us. The site was obviously deserted when Évreux was liberated in August 1944.

American style

After a short “French” period, l’US Air Force settled there within the framework of NATO, from 1952 to 1967. The Ebroicians saw the first C130 Hercules, deployed from the United States, fly. Village hall, currency, housing, school, hospital, supermarket, leisure: the military lives in perfect self-sufficiency and American-style on the Évreux base.

In 1967, the last Americans left Évreux; the French air force finds the Ebroician air base. The BA 105, named Commander Viot, was born. It became “one of the main military air transport bases in France”. The Béarn, Maine, Anjou, Bigorre, Aubrac units follow one another, the school group is created…

Today there are the CASAs of the Ventoux and Vercors squadrons, without forgetting the C130J Super Hercules of the Franco-German squadron created in 2021. The former aerodrome has become advanced military base has not finished its story with Évreux.

The book is on sale for €14 at the Comptoir des Loisirs, at BD Lib and at Gibert Joseph.

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