An aviation guide through East Lindsey locating active RAF stations and former airfield sites Contents Map To Grimsby Holton Contents Le Clay NORTH COATES N Tetney North Cotes Marshchapel DONNA NOOK MAP NOT DRAWN TO SCALE A1 North 8 Fulstow East Lindsey | East Lindsey Grainsthorpe Thoresby North Somercotes LUDBOROUGH Covenham Reservoir A16 Binbrook Saltfleet A 1031 | East Lindsey Utterby Alvingham KELSTERN North Fotherby Cockerington THEDDLETHORPE A631 Saltfleetby To Market Louth LUDFORD MAGNA Grimoldby St. Peter Theddlethorpe St. Helen Rasen South South Cockerington Elkington Theddlethorpe A157 B1200 MANBY All Saints Mablethorpe Donington Legbourne on Bain Abbreviations North Coates BBMF Visitor Centre A157 Trusthorpe Little Withern Sutton PAGE 4 PAGES 18 & 19 PAGES 30 & 31 A16 Cawthorpe STRUBBYThorpe on Sea Cadwell Woodthorpe East Barkwith Maltby Sandilands MARKET STAINTON le Marsh Introduction Spilsby Lincolnshire Aviation A5 To A Scamblesby 10 Wragby 2 Lincoln Aby PAGE 5 Ruckland 4 PAGES 20 & 21 Heritage Centre A1111 Bilsby Belchford PAGES 32 & 33 A158 Anderby Bardney Strubby Alford Creek Tetford Brinkhill Mumby PAGES 6 & 7 PAGES 22 & 23 Baumber Hemingby Chapel Thorpe Camp Visitor Minting Somersby Mawthorpe St. Leonards A1 Hogsthorpe Centre A 02 West Ashby Bag Enderby Harrington 1 8 Coningsby 6 Woodhall Spa PAGES 34 & 35 Horncastle Willoughby PAGES 8 & 9 Hagworthingham PAGES 24 & 25 BARDNEY Thimbleby Addlethorpe BUCKNALL Partney INGOLDMELLS Horsington B1195 Orby Petwood Hotel Raithby East Kirkby Other Locations Gunby PAGE 36 Stixwould 191 WINTHORPE PAGES 10 & 11 B1 3 SPILSBY Halton 5 MOORBY Hundleby Burgh le Marsh PAGES 26 & 27 Roughton A1 Holegate Old Bolingbroke BURGH ROAD Toynton Great Kelstern The Cottage Museum WOODHALL SPA East Steeping Skegness Coastal Bombing Revesby EASTWe KIRKBYst Keal PAGES 12 & 13 PAGE 37 B1 Thorpe St. A155 Keal Ranges 192 Kirkby Peter on Bain TATTERSHALL THORPE Mareham Stickford Ludford Magna PAGE 28 Memorials le Fen WAINFLEET Wainfleet PAGES 14 & 15 PAGE 38 Tattershall Tumby Woodside CONINGSBY Stickney All Saints Anti Aircraft Eastville New York Defences Tourist Information To Sleaford Dogdyke Friskney 2 Manby A5 A 1 B1 6 PAGES 16 & 17 PAGE 29 PAGE 39 192 Frithville Sibsey To Boston Cover picture captions, starting top left to right: 227 Sqn crew with their Lancaster 9J-J. Typhoon ‘afterburner’ take-off at RAF Coningsby. KEY Nose art on a Bardney based Lancaster. Main picture: BBMF Lancaster PA474 taxys out to take off at RAF Coningsby. Bottom left picture: Langrick AOC’s Inspection at RAF Coningsby. = Main Road = Minor Road Acknowledgements: East Lindsey District Council gratefully acknowledges the following people and organisations for providing material To Boston = Railway for this booklet: IX(B) Squadron Association; 619 Squadron Association; Air Cdr Milligan CBE; Andy Thomas Collection; A and K Markham Photography; Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire; Brian Stafford; Down To Earth Promotions; John Whiteley’s family; Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre; Lincolnshire County Council; Mill Design & Advertising; Mr Fred Witchell Collection, courtesy of North Staffs 1940s Group; Nev Franklin Collection – Newark Air Museum Archive; Peter Green Collection; Peter Snaith; Peter Allam; Petwood Hotel; RAF Coningsby (BBMF); Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre; Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum. 2 3 Abbreviations Introduction AAS ............ Air Armament School ELDC .......... East Lindsey District OCU ........... Operational ABG ............ Air Base Group Council Conversion Unit The patchwork of fields across ABS ............. Air Base Squadron FIDO ........... Fog Intense Dispersal RAAF .......... Royal Australian Air Lincolnshire’s landscape has been sculpted Introduction Air Cdr ....... Air Commodore Operation Force Abbreviations AOC ........... Air Officer FJWOEU .... Fast Jet & Weapons RAF ............. Royal Air Force by aviation from the earliest days of flight Commanding Operational RAFCAW ... Royal Air Force College Evaluation Unit AOS ............ Air Observer School of Aerial Warfare Flt ................ Flight with the introduction of the World War I ARS ............. Air Rescue Squadron RAFA .......... Royal Air Force GAS ............. Ground Armament BAT ............. Beam Approach Association landing grounds and aerodromes. School Training RAFFC ........ Royal Air Force Flying Gee .............. Code name for - | East Lindsey College East Lindsey | East Lindsey BBMF ......... Battle of Britain Memorial Flight hyperbolic navigation RCAF .......... Royal Canadian Air The pace of this sculpting was increased by the V-Bomber base at RAF Coningsby; the Thor system BDTF .......... Bomber Defence Force World War II and the need for airfields close IRBM base at RAF Ludford Magna; and the Training Flight Gp ................ Group RDF ............ Radio Direction Finding to the county’s coastline. In some places it Bloodhound SAM base at RAF North Coates. HD ............... Home Defence BDU ........... Bomb Disposal Unit SAM ........... Surface to Air Missile was changed irrevocably by the laying down Some locations, such as RAF Coningsby have IRBM ........... Intermediate CH .............. Chain Home Sqn ............. Squadron of countless concrete runways and taxiways continued to develop and are still active today Range Ballistic that criss-crossed the region and in doing so CHL ............ Chain Home Low Sqn Ldr ...... Squadron Leader with Typhoon fighters, the Battle of Britain Missile helped cement a common bond of service DFC ............ Distinguished Flying USAF .......... United States Air Force Memorial Flight and Visitor Centre. Other Cross MOD ........... Ministry of Defence and camaraderie. These bonds were formed in MU .............. Maintenance Unit VC ............... Victoria Cross aviation locations are merely marked with EAAS .......... Empire Air Armament the shadows of adversity, but they connected memorials to the fallen, like the inspiring mosaic School NZ ............... New Zealand Wg Cdr ..... Wing Commander people together from around the world in a way at North Thoresby. ECAS .......... Empire Central NAFFI ........ Navy, Army and Air WWI .......... World War One that remains strong today. Armament School Force Institutes WWII ......... World War Two Please note: Some of the sites featured are on private In several places in East Lindsey these changes land and we urge you to respect the privacy of those continued post-War, during the Cold War Era locations. However the memorials featured are all through continued military development; like publically accessible. 4 5 Bardney LOCATION / GRID REF: Early IX(B) Sqn operations out of Bardney Bardney coincided with the ‘Battle of the Ruhr’. On Bardney Sheet 121SK135708; close to the B1202 20th April 1943 Lancaster W4964 (WS-J) took Bardney to Wragby road off from Bardney on an Op to Stettin, that DATES OF OPERATION: particular aircraft went on to become a ‘100 1943 to 1945 – bomber base Op’ aircraft when it took part in a Tirpitz Raid 1945 to 1959 – storage & maintenance in September 1944. Post war the aircraft was displayed in a small museum at the College East Lindsey | East Lindsey 1959 to 1963 – Thor missile base | East Lindsey of Aerial Warfare at RAF Manby; was then SQUADRONS: scrapped and a small fuselage section survived IX(B) Sqn; 227 Sqn; 189 Sqn; 106(SM) Sqn as a garden shed, before being donated to the Newark Air Museum in 1974. RAF Bardney’s major wartime role was as the IX(B) Sqn soon became established as a two main base for IX(B) Sqn, which along with Fight Main Force Squadron and during the 617 Sqn was one of the RAF’s main precision ‘Battle for Berlin’ established a reputation for bombing squadrons. high accuracy bombing. Operating with 617 The airfield site at Bardney was first surveyed Sqn, IX(B) Sqn was used on Ops targeting in early 1941 and was designed in the standard U-Boat pens; railway bridges; V weapon pattern with 3 concrete runways. Construction sites; Normandy fortification; and the Tirpitz work started in 1942 but was delayed by a battleship. shortage of construction materials. Bardney went from In October 1944 ‘A’ Flt of 227 Sqn was reformed being a wartime The base opened in April 1943 when IX(B) Sqn alongside IX(B) Sqn at Bardney; whilst ‘B’ Flt was bomber base through moved from RAF Waddington to Bardney. Most formed alongside 619 Sqn at Strubby; before accounts note that the squadron took off from both Flt’s moved to RAF Balderton. to a Thor Missile site. Waddington on 13th April on a raid to Northern One of IX(B) Sqn’s finest Ops took place on Italy; after take-off the ground crews relocated 12th November 1944, whilst flying from RAF to Bardney ready to receive the returning Lossiemouth, Y – ‘Younger’ piloted by Doug aircraft from the raid. 1 2 Tweddle and with bomb-aimer Denis Nolan, is widely believed to have dropped the Tallboy bomb that finally turned the Tirpitz battleship over and made it inoperable. In April 1945 Bardney hosted 189 Sqn; with IX(B) Sqn returning to RAF Waddington shortly after the war ended. A period of use for storage and a Care and Maintenance role followed; before Bardney 3 4 returned to operations in a Cold War role as a Thor Missile Base with 106(SM) Sqn based there 1. Nose art on a Bardney based Lancaster between 1959 and1963. The site was eventually 2. The Bardney watch office as it looks today 3. Bardney crew in front of Lancaster H ‘Hephzibah’ used for gliding and by an aerial crop spraying 4. IX(B) Sqn crew on Lancaster Y ‘Younger’ company. 5. RAF Bardney Memorial