Before it was a Polish fighter base, the airfield at Królewo Malborskie was German: Königsdorf, outside Marienburg in East Prussia. As Allied bombing hit Focke-Wulf’s home works at Bremen, the company moved part of its production east, to Żary, Poznań and Marienburg. Plant No. 6 at Marienburg, run by Ernst August Wohlberg, assembled Fw 190 fighters. Local historians credit it with nearly half of all Fw 190s built. That share is repeated widely, but no production ledger in the sources read confirms it, so treat it as an estimate.

On 9 October 1943 the US Eighth Air Force sent 100 B-17s on one of its deepest raids yet, and 96 reached the target. They bombed from 11,000–13,000 feet and dropped about 218 short tons. Estimates of accuracy vary. The National WWII Museum gives 83 per cent of bombs within 2,000 feet of the aiming point. Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal called it the “most perfect example in history of the accurate distribution of bombs over a target.”

The human cost on the ground was heavy. German records give 114 of the factory’s 669 workers killed and 76 injured. The Malbork press notes that forced labourers from the Stutthof concentration camp also worked there, and their casualties were not recorded. Five buildings and 20 finished aircraft were destroyed. The Americans returned on 9 April 1944, Easter Sunday, with 98 B-17s. After that raid production at the plant practically ceased, at the cost of three bombers and 14 American airmen killed.

Soviet units used the airfield briefly after 1945. Polish jet aviation came in 1952, when three separate fighter regiments were formed from an aviation grouping in Pomerania: the 41st at Malbork, the 29th at Orneta and the 26th at Zegrze Pomorskie. They came under the 9th Fighter Aviation Division, later the 4th Pomeranian Fighter Aviation Division, headquartered in barracks on ul. 17 Marca in Malbork. The regiment’s first commander was Major Aleksander Babunow, followed in 1953 by Major Stefan Łazar.

Until 1964 the regiment flew the MiG-15 and MiG-17 and their Polish licence-built counterparts, the Lim-1, Lim-2 and Lim-5 from Mielec. On 29 September 1964 the first four MiG-21s landed. Several MiG-21 variants followed, the F-13, PF, PFM, M, MF and bis, together with the U and UM trainers. Encyclopaedic sources date the switch to 1963, while the local account gives the September 1964 delivery.

Flying supersonic interceptors from a coastal base carried a cost. An accident list compiled by the Polish aviation historians at Polot records at least ten MiG-21 accidents in the regiment between 1967 and 1982. Three aircraft were lost in 1967 alone and two on 31 December 1975. In most of these accidents the pilot survived. One did not: Second Lieutenant Mieczysław Huza was killed near Bogatka on 15 June 1977.

The post-Cold War cuts reshaped Malbork. On 1 January 2001 the 41st Regiment was split into the 22nd Air Base (22 Baza Lotnicza), which ran the airfield, and the 41st Tactical Aviation Squadron (41 Eskadra Lotnictwa Taktycznego), which flew the aircraft. The Polot squadron history dates the reorganisation to 1 January 2000. Its own base history, press reports from 2000 and the English encyclopaedia all give 2001. The last Polish MiG-21s flew from Malbork in mid-December 2003.

Malbork was at risk of closing once the MiG-21 went. It was saved by the MiG-29s Germany had inherited from the East German air force, which were overhauled at Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze nr 2 in Bydgoszcz. The first ex-German MiG-29, side number 4115, landed at Malbork on 6 May 2005, and the type was formally inaugurated on 7 June 2005.

Under the Air Force’s 2011 reform the flying squadron and the base were merged, and on 1 January 2011 they became the 22nd Tactical Air Base under the 1st Tactical Air Wing at Świdwin. Colonel Robert Dziadczykowski was its first commander. Malbork MiGs flew NATO air policing in the Baltic States, including the Orlik 2 rotation in Lithuania in 2008. That year the squadron moved temporarily to Mińsk Mazowiecki from 29 September while Malbork’s airfield was modernised.

The official press no longer uses the 41st Squadron’s number for the flying unit in its current texts. Some 2026 reporting uses it again, but the number is unconfirmed from an official source. In late 2022 Malbork became the Air Force’s MiG-29 base. Seven upgraded MiG-29s from the 23rd Tactical Air Base at Mińsk Mazowiecki moved here so that combat duty could continue while Mińsk was rebuilt for the FA-50.

Stanisław Skalski was born on 27 November 1915 and graduated from the air force school at Dęblin in 1938. In September 1939 he was flying the PZL P.11c with the 4th Air Regiment at Toruń and was credited with six victories. He fought on with the RAF and led the Polish Fighting Team in Tunisia in 1943. Later he commanded No. 601 Squadron RAF and then Polish fighter wings. The Bajan List credits him with 18 individual and two shared kills.

He returned to Poland in 1947. On 4 June 1948 the Ministry of Public Security arrested him on a fabricated charge of spying for British intelligence. On 7 April 1950 the Military District Court in Warsaw sentenced him to death. After his mother petitioned Bolesław Bierut the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released on 20 April 1956 and rehabilitated. The Institute of National Remembrance records that the security service kept him under surveillance into the 1980s.

Malbork’s link to him runs through Toruń. The base keeps the traditions of the 142nd Toruń Fighter Squadron he flew with in 1939 and of No. 306 “Toruński” Squadron. The Minister of National Defence named him patron by a decision of 2 November 2015, and the ceremony took place at Malbork on 27 November 2015, his centenary. Sources differ on his promotion to general: 1986 in one article, 1988 in another.

At 01:57 on 6 July 2018, during a night training sortie, a Malbork MiG-29 came down in a field near Sakówko in the Pasłęk district. Its pilot was Captain Krzysztof Sobański, aged 33, who left a wife and two children. He ejected but did not survive. The ministry described him as having more than 800 flying hours. On the MiG-29 alone it gave more than 600 hours, while Polska Zbrojna reported more than 500. He had served on combat duty and on the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission in Lithuania.

It was the Polish Air Force’s first fatal MiG-29 accident in 29 years of service. It came less than seven months after a Mińsk Mazowiecki MiG-29 crashed on approach on 18 December 2017, when that pilot survived. Colonel Maciej Trelka of the Air Force Inspectorate called the MiG-29 a very safe aircraft. Minister Mariusz Błaszczak suspended all MiG-29 flying until the cause was known.

The aircraft failure was traced to the low-pressure fuel system, which dumped more than two tonnes of fuel in about three minutes. Press reports of the commission’s findings put the death down to the K-36 ejection seat. A part in its parachute-deployment chain had been redesigned and made at WZL-2 Bydgoszcz without the Russian manufacturer’s approval or proper documentation, and was reported to be about 15 times stronger than the original. The report was classified and its contents became public in June 2019 through press leaks.

The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk charged three former WZL-2 employees, Grzegorz K., Jerzy D. and Zbigniew S. The charges are causing a fatal air accident and endangering other pilots. By August 2025 the case had been before the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz for more than three and a half years. In June 2026 it was still at first instance, with experts due to be heard again.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, NATO strengthened air policing on its eastern flank, and Malbork became a regular host. Four French Rafales arrived on 28 April 2014, with about 70 personnel, and went on alert on 6 May. Four Turkish F-16s with about 80 personnel followed from mid-August to mid-September 2021. In 2022 Italy’s Air Task Force “White Eagle” brought four Eurofighters for 120 days, the first time Italy used Malbork rather than Lithuania or Estonia.

Fifth-generation fighters came next. The Netherlands deployed eight F-35s in February and March 2023. Italy’s Task Force Air 32nd Wing followed with four F-35s and about 150 personnel from September 2023 to mid-February 2024. In 2025 RAF Typhoons of No. II (AC) Squadron arrived on 27 March for four months. They shared the base with six Swedish Gripens on Sweden’s first NATO air policing mission. Five German Eurofighters of Tactical Air Wing 31 “Boelcke” followed in December 2025 and left in March 2026.

The Polish MiGs meanwhile ran down. In 2023 Poland became the first NATO country to give MiG-29s to Ukraine, 14 aircraft in the initial tranche. On 5 April 2023 President Andrzej Duda said four had already been handed over and four more were on their way. A December 2025 “MiGs for drones” deal for the last 14 aircraft was halted on 29 June 2026, when Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Kyiv had not honoured it.

The ministry then said the jets would be retired as they ran out of certified hours, with no further upgrade. It has classified the phase-out timetable. In January 2026 the ministry told the regional press that plans to station AH-64 Apache helicopters at Malbork remained current. It added that the airfield is important security infrastructure and will keep operating for helicopters and aircraft, allied ones included. No fighter type has been announced to replace the MiG-29 here.