By Sea and Land: Boston in Wartime

The RAF in The RAF had a significant impact on the landscape of Lincolnshire during the Second World War—there were ap- proximately 29,300 acres of agricultural land in use by operational airbases by 1945. In addition to this there were decoy sites—dummy airfields and fire ranges. There were also bomb stores workshops and radar sites. Several RAF stations were built in the 1930s when it was realised that Germany was re-arming. Sites such as Waddington, Scampton, Digby, Hemswell, Manby and Kirton Lindsey, feature solid well-built classical style buildings. Later airfields including RAF featured many more temporary buildings—Nissan huts, Maycrete buildings, and quickly erected brick and metal buildings. RAF Coningsby in the late 1940s

RAF Coningsby RAF Coningsby was opened in 1940 as a bomber station. Initially it had grass run- ways; hard runways were laid early in 1943 and the heavy bomber squadrons moved in. Who was stationed here? 106 Squadron (1941) 97 Squadron (1941) 617 Squadron Dambusters (1943—1944)

Some of the Land Army girls remember cycling to RAF Coningsby on a Sunday to watch the planes take off. ‘We watched them circle round getting higher and higher’ ‘We would listen for them coming back in the early hours’ Other locals remember incendiary bombs being dropped on the cornfields, and German planes drop- ping Very lights to help them see their targets. Ellen Jackson (In Ration Books and Rabbit Pie) remembered a Dakota coming back from operations . They could hear it spluttering ‘ Oh dear , I thought, something’s going wrong… ‘Get over there boy, get over there. Don’t come over here...it was terrifying.’ It didn’t get to the landing… it didn’t get to the common before it crashed.’ The rear gunner was dead already from the operation they had been on. ‘I remember that a German Aircraft made an emergency landing in a field near Pillars Lane. It had been on a mis- sion to Coventry. The crew were captured.’ Frank Stanney Boston War time Stories: - Frank ‘s Story

By Sea and Land: Boston in Wartime

As soon as I was 18 I volunteered for the RAF, I did my initial training at St John's Wood in and then went to Hereford for flying training. Whilst there I passed out and gained my Sergeant's stripes. I became a wireless operator and air gunner as I already knew Morse Code from my time in the Air Cadets. This meant listening for recall and diversion messages in Morse code. They had an intercom system in the plane but all other communications were done by Morse code. I was stationed at Market Harborough and joined my crew there. I flew 10 missions to Germany, 5 to Italy and 2 transport flights. We managed to keep the same crew Frank Stanney throughout ( apart from one flight engineer). We were very often shot at on raids. It always seemed really boring flying back – it seemed to take a lot longer than getting there. On one occasion we had a dud engine on a mission to Italy and couldn't take off. That gave us chance to see some of the sights in Italy including Pompei. On another mission we were hit over Bremen, in Germany. It was a Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine, we lost an engine and had to fly back on three engines.

On one occasion when we were flying over France we saw some French people waving at us from the fields. We thought they were cheering us 'Vive Le RAF' but in fact they were waving their fists at us as we were flying quite low and we were upsetting the cows at milking time! At the end of the war there were lots of opportunities with Flying Transport command. I flew in two missions -we would cram 24 POWs into the Lancaster along with the crew. It was extremely cramped and I had to move three of them out of the way to raise and lower the landing gear. I chose to be demobbed in February 1946 as my Mother was very ill .