Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase


Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase is a Libyan Air Force base, located about 16 km south of Tobruk. It is believed to once have had about 60 or 70 Mirage F.1EDs aircraft assigned.
Prior to 31 March 1970, the airfield was known as Royal Air Force Station El Adem, and used by the RAF primarily as a staging post. Before World War II, it had been an Italian Air Force airfield. A number of the former Italian buildings were seen remaining in 2003, during a courtesy visit by former RAF personnel, at which time no military aircraft were evident.
Royal Air Force Station El Adem was the fuel stop for the BOAC aircraft carrying the new Queen Elizabeth II on her flight from Entebbe to London on 7 February 1952. In 1994, the remaining wreckage of Lady Be Good, a US Army Air Force B-24 Liberator heavy bomber that crashed-landed deep in the Libyan desert during WWII in 1943, was brought to the air base by a local Libyan team led by Dr. Fadel Ali Mohammed for storage and safekeeping. The remnants of the aircraft still remain there.

World War II

The airfield was largely reconstructed in 1942 by the Royal Air Force and brought into operational use on 12 December 1942. It was used during World War II by the RAF and the United States Army Air Forces during the North African Campaign against Axis forces.
RAF units which used the airfield were:
USAAF Ninth Air Force units which used the airfield were:
In 2013, the airport was officially reopened as Tobruk International Airport, with flights to Alexandria, Egypt.