On 25 and 26 June 2022, the French Air Force hosted an open house at their Base Aérienne 113 Saint-Dizier. The town of Saint-Dizier is located halfway Paris and Strasbourg in the famous Champagne area. On June 24 and 27 there was an opportunity to visit the base to photograph the arrivals and departures. We decided to visit the base on Saturday the 25th and Monday the 27th for the departures. On Friday, we stayed outside the base -on the east side- to capture the arriving aircraft.

Base Aérienne 113
Like many French airbases, BA-133 was founded just before WWI. In 1913, the Armée de l‘air base welcomed its first aircraft. The Germans took over the base in 1940. They put the Messerschmitt BF-109 and BF-110, Junkers JU-88 and DO-217 aircraft on the captured base. Later during WWII, the USAAF took over the base and stationed the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft at Saint-Dizier. After the war the base was brought to NATO standards and became a light bomber air base. The French air force stationed Jaguar fighters from EC1/7 Provence at the airbase in 1970. The first Rafales came in 2006. Nowadays there are three squadrons based at Saint-Dizier:

EC 01.004 Gasgoine with Rafale B
EC 02.004 La Fayette with Rafale B
ETR 03.004 Acquitaine with Rafale B-C and M. This is an Air Force-Navy combined Rafale training unit.

The 2022 open house
A lot of historical aircraft came in for the open house to Saint-Dizier. Two Brousards and a MD-311 Flamant were part of the airshow. Two Harvards were seen on the static display. From Cognac Airbase, three PC-21s were parked in front of the public. The airshow contained a Danish F-16A, serial E-191, in special painting with Teo as demo pilot. The accompanying aircraft of the Danish was a F-16B in a new painting scheme, overall dark grey. Unfortunately, this two-seater was parked in a sun shed out of sight of the public. Other highlights of the show were amazing performances of the Rafale jet fighter, and an A-400 transport aircraft. And of course, demo team Patrouille de France performed a beautiful show.