Schaffen Air Base (Advanced Landing Ground B-64)

Schaffen Air Base is a Belgian Air Force base located 2.1 km north-northeast of Diest in Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The facility operates as the Training Center for Parachutists (TrgC Para) of the Belgian ParaCommandos, a role it has maintained since 1946. The airfield also supports recreational gliding and motorized flying by the Diest Aeroclub.

The installation was established around 1914 by the Imperial German Army during World War I. The Imperial German Air Service (Die Fliegertruppen) operated from the airfield until their withdrawal following the November 1918 Armistice. During the interwar period, Schaffen housed a large portion of the Belgian Air Force, with approximately half of the force stationed there by early 1940. On May 10, 1940, during the Battle of Belgium, Luftwaffe Heinkel He-111, Messerschmitt Me-110, and Dornier Do-17 aircraft attacked the airfield. The bombardment destroyed or damaged the majority of the stationed Hawker Hurricanes and Gloster aircraft, resulting in the abandonment of the field by Belgian forces.

During the German occupation of Belgium, the Luftwaffe utilized Schaffen to form Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 (StG 1). The unit operated Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers from the airfield against British shipping until August 1940, when the aircraft were withdrawn to the Balkans. For the remainder of the occupation, Schaffen functioned as a non-combat airfield under Flughafen-Bereichs-Kommando 22/XI. After the British Army advanced through the Diest area, Royal Engineers assumed control of the airfield and designated it Advanced Landing Ground B-64. The Royal Air Force utilized the location until the German capitulation in May 1945.

Following World War II, Schaffen hosted the Belgian Air Force elementary flying school until the unit relocated to Air Base Goetsenhoven in 1950.