 The airfield began service on 1 April 1938, and on the same date, the Air Ministry officially separated Peenemünde-West from the joint command that included the adjacent Army Research Center Peenemünde.As "Werk West", the Luftwaffe Test Site () and under control from the central "Erprobungsstelle Rechlin" facility inland, the Peenemünde-West coastal facility was used for testing experimental aircraft ("Erprobungsflugzeug") such as the Heinkel He 176 (flown at Peenemünde on June 20, 1939) and the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered fighter (code named 'Peenemünde 30' by British intelligence – the '30' referring to the object's measured wingspan in feet).At the northeast edge of the concrete airfield was a launch ramp for testing the V-1 flying bomb and on which, in 1943, RAF officer Constance Babington Smith, working at RAF Medmenham, detected a small winged aircraft ('Peenemünde 20') while viewing an Allied reconnaissance photograph.