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Herzo Base US garrison

The US military base Herzo Base was maintained from 1945 until 1992. During the last weeks of war, the US air force used the occupied air base to support the advance of the allied troops. The US pioneers built a paved landing strip by far exceeding the original fencing of the area with a total length of 2000 meters. After the surrender of Germany, the military area was used by different US troops.

Already in 1947, the Herzogenaurach garrison was developed into a listening post of the military intelligence of the US army. The Army Security Agency (USASA) moved into the German barracks which had not been destroyed during the war. A hangar became the bug-proof information center and the antennas were installed on the former airfield. From here, the interception specialists monitored the radio communication and radiotelephone traffic of the communist part of Europe. In the course of the restructuring and pooling of the USASA facilities in Augsburg, the base in Herzogenaurach was abandoned in 1972.

During the following 20 years, the military area was used by the US field artillery as a base for troops with track vehicles, helicopters and short-range missiles. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, first rumors about the GIs leaving the Herzo Artillery Base began to spread. The last troop parts of the VII US army corps left the base in Herzogenaurach in February 1992.