Forgotten airfields: Winter airfield

Winter airfield was an airfield on the island of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. Depending on the source, the airfield was built either just before or just after World War II by German entrepreneur Gustav Winter. Mr. Winters history on the island (and his connection to the airfield) makes for interesting reading and it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction.

The legend (with many small variations existing):

In the early 1930s German engineer Gustav Winter settled down in Morro Jable, a small fishing village on the westernmost tip of Fuerteventura. Only weeks before he had settled a lease on the whole peninsula of Jandia with the Spanish government. Mr. Winter, who always wore dark sunglasses accompanied by his black dog, contributed to the development of Morro Jable and Jandia by building a school, a church and a road to the peninsula. He also took the initiative to build Morro Jable its first harbour and planted over 10,000 trees on the Pico del Zarza (none of which survived). 'Don Gustavo' recuited local men to build his villa under strict secrecy rules. Every morning the men were brought to the site and they had to leave by the evening, with the borders being guarded by watchmen. The alliance between Hitler and Franco (Spain's ruler until the 1970s) made it possible to declare a major portion of the Peninsula a restricted military area, evicting the local population. Winter was to carry out important economical projects for the Reich with German workers. In reality these workers were concentration camp prisoners from Tefía. A mysterious cemetery near the beach leaves speculations about the working conditions of these men. Jandia was sold to Dehesa de Jandia S.A. of which Mr Winter was manager. On several places (both near the villa and furter away) railways tracks are visible, so appearantly there was a lot of construction work on the mountainside. There is evidence suggesting Fuerteventura, because of its strategic location, must have been a U-boat base for the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) during World War 2. It is certain that U-boats were in the waters around the Canary Islands, and at least 6 port visits were made by U-boats between March and July 1941. It is likely that the tower of Mr Winters villa served as a waypoint for the U-boats, as well as for German aircraft coming to his airfield on the tip of Jandia.
Many speculations claim that the peninsula had a secret U-boat base in one of the volcanic lavatunnels littered along the coast. Rumour has it that two complete U-boats (still listed as missing in action) are still inside. An Austrian-Spanish team that went looking for the submarine base alledgedly died when their yacht exploded. The tower in the villa alledgedly has a large fusebox, indicating equipment was used that required a lot of electricity. Another rumour tells that near and shortly after the war the Winter Villa was used as a clinic where Nazi criminals received plastic surgery before beginning a new live in South America. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen U-boats near the coast of Jandia and several aircraft have been said to land and leave at the airfield. Mr Winter died in Las Palmas in 1971 and until the 1990s his villa was protected by a private security firm.
The security firm kept all visitors at a distance.

The real story (according to VillaWinter.com, largely built on Mr Winter's interview with German magazine Stern):

Gustav Winter was born in 1893 in Neustad in the Black Forest in Germany. In 1915 he came to Spain and set up a technical studio in Madrid in 1921. In 1924, aged 28 he founded the CICER electricity plant in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, which opened in 1928. The first clues to his connections to Jandia appeared in 1933 (the same year Hitler came to power). On 19 July 1937 Winter signed a lease with the heirs of the Conde de Santa Coloma from Lanzarote. Later that same year he travelled to Berlin to find funding for his enterprise. In July and August of 1938 a small Winter-led expedition travelled to Fuerteventura to photograph and chart the peninsula. Winter succeeded to get permission to start economically important projects for the Third Reich in 1938. At the same time he was also present as an agent for the Abwehr (German intellligence agency). From 1939 locals were no longer permitted to enter the Jandia peninsula. In October 1940 Hitler and Franco disagreed over a support facility in the Canary Islands. Franco hesitated because of Spains sovereignity, so for the time being he held Hitler at bay. Between March and July 1941 6 successive port visits were made by German U-Boats in the port of Las Palmas (under code name Culebra) for support by the MV Corrientes, an 'interned' German ship. (in chronologic order: U-124, U-105, U-106, U-123, U-69, U-103). In 1941 a notary passed the sale of Dehesa de Jandia S.A. to three Spaniards. Its general manager was Mr. Gustav Winter. In 1943 the U-167 was shot at by an English patrol aircraft. It's crew managed to bring the boat to the south of Gran Canaria, where it sank. During the war Mr. Winter led a repair facility of the Kriegsmarine in Bordeaux. Mr. Winter met his (soon to be) wife in Madrid in 1945. Construction of the Winter Villa began in 1946. That same year the road to Cofete was constructed by prisoners of the Tefía concentration camp. The Allies allowed the Winter couple to return to the Canary Islands in 1947. Gustav began a tomato palantation, had wells drilled and tried to forest the mountains of Jandia. For several days, locals heard explosions on the peninsula in 1950. Villa Winter was built in its present form from 1950, after the appropriate permits were granted. In an interview with German magazine Stern, Mr. Winter claimed the villa was not completed until the end of 1958. He had been unable to provide Stern magazine with any reasonable explanation for his airfield though. In 1962 the Dehesa de Jandia S.A. transferred the 2,300hectares of land between Morro Jable and Cofete to Gustav Winter, thanking him for the development of the peninsula. In 1971 Mr. Winter died, and Stern Magazine published their story on him. Amongst others the article claimed that German Film Producer Hans Wernicke, who had lived on Gran Canaria for years, discovered closets filled with Wehrmacht uniforms during a secret visit to the by then already abandoned villa (source). Mr. Winter's heirs had the villa renovated in 1985, closing the entrances to the cellars under the villa. The villa was then secured by a private security company until the early 1990s. Fact and fiction are so intertwined, it is extremely hard to discover which is which.
The facts around the airfield are simple: it existed, because its remains are there. It is not, however, the airstrip that is easily recognised in todays aerial photography. The Winter airstrip was located to the south and oriented southwest-northeast, between 28°04'36"N014°29'22"W and 28°04'57"N014°28'547"W. Use of this airstrip was prohibited from ca. 1950. It remained clearly visible in aerial photography until at least 1973 but began to fade out in photos taken about 10 years later.

Source:
http://www.ronaldv.nl/abandoned/airfields/ES/canary.html