Lista Air Station (, ) was a military airbase situated on the Lista peninsula in Farsund, Norway. It features a concrete runway aligned 14/32, and a runway aligned 09/27. The facility was shared with Farsund Airport, Lista, which remains in operation.
The airbase was built by Luftwaffe between 1941 and 1944, during the German occupation of Norway. Throughout the Second World War it was predominantly used for fighter aircraft and served as part of the Atlantic Wall. Most of the buildings at the station date from this period. It was taken over by the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1946. It was at first closed and then reopened, originally serving a weapon-technical school and a shooting and bombing school. The latter utilized the shooting area at Marka.
Lista received North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) funding for a runway extension, which was built between 1955 and 1959. Lista was designated a reserve airbase throughout the Cold War. The RNoAF's recruit school was located at Lista from 1963 to 1984. Thereafter it was mostly used for conferences. Lista Air Station was closed on 6 June 1996. The sale of the base, in which the military paid to the new owners to buy the property, resulted in a series of investigations and a change to the way the military sold properties.
History
Establishment
The Norwegian Armed Forces never considered the suitability of Lista as an air base prior to the Second World War, despite its natural suitability in a flat, open landscape. The German occupation of Norway started on 9 April 1940 as part of Operation Weserübung. Lista was initially not prioritized by the Wehrmacht. The first landing of fifteen troops took place on 24 April, in an action to secure Lista Lighthouse.
Lista was regarded as crucial to secure the safe transport of convoys along the coast. By 22 May 60 men had been stationed in Farsund. The first work on establishing defenses in Lista commenced later in the summer by the Kriegsmarine in what would later develop into Nordberg Fort and part of the Atlantic Wall. Guns were installed by October, making the coastal artillery operative.
The Luftwaffe's took control over Kjevik Air Station and Sola Air Station upon the occupation. They quickly assessed that there would be need for an additional airfield located between Kristiansand and Stavanger. Work therefore commenced on building Mandal Airport, which was completed in August 1940. By then Lista had been assessed as a more suitable location. Planning started in August and surveying was completed by the end of the month. The work was carried out by German personnel through Luftwaffe Bau-Batalionen and German contractors who hired Norwegian workers. Construction began on 2 September.
The runway was built in the area around Langåker and Stave. After leveling, a runway was built with prefabricated wooden elements. It measured and westwards it reached the beach at Verevågen. It was at the time the longest wooden runway in Norway. The runway was completed in April 1941, allowing the first aircraft to land. Mandal Airport was closed and the aircraft transferred to Lista.
The first anti-aircraft defenses arrived on 27 December 1940, originally placing 88 mm guns at Vågsvold, Lista Lighthouse and at Stave. Four more positions were established in 1941. This was reorganized in 1943, when some of the units were moved out of Lista.
Next work started on the main part of the air station. Contracted to Ed Zublin, the first part of the work was to drain the vast mires located throughout the peninsula. The terraforming proved difficult and work ran gradually for three years. Several smaller hills were demolished and moved to fill up where necessary. The landscape was dug out to create a series of drainage passages. The work resulted in a concrete runway, in addition to of taxiways and associated hangars, barracks and other buildings.
The work employed more than 10,000 Norwegian workers and several thousand Eastern Europeans. An industrial railway, the Lunde Line, was completed in April 1943. Two Würzburg radars and a Freya radar were installed at Lista from May 1943, along with one at Flekkerøy. Meanwhile, a bearing station and jamming station were also installed.
Luftwaffe operations
Lista Air Station was primarily used by fighter aircraft throughout the Second World War. Its main task was to provide support for the North Sea and Skagerrak areas along the coastline. The squadrons and aircraft stationed and dispatched to Lista varied over time, and often Lista was one of several airbases in Southern Norway used by a division at any given time.