RAF East Kirkby
Encyclopedia
RAF East Kirkby is a former Royal Air Force
base near the village of East Kirkby
, south of Horncastle in Lincolnshire
, just off the A155. The Greenwich meridian
passes through the base.
.
Stationed at East Kirkby were:
RAF East Kirkby served also as the headquarters of No 5/5 (Bomber) Group RAF in command of satellite stations at RAF Strubby, RAF Spilsby
, RAF Hemswell
and RAF Manby.
inserted it detonated, setting off the rest of the Lancaster's bombload. A massive explosion killed three airmen, injured 16 others, wrote off six other Lancasters beyond repair and badly damaged a nearby aircraft hangar.
The final wartime raid from East Kirkby was flown on 25 April 1945. In total, 212 operations were carried out during the war, from which 121 Lancasters did not return. Another 29 aircraft were lost due to operational crashes or accidents.
from RAF Binbrook
. This squadron joined No. 57 for transfer to the Far East as part of Tiger Force
. In the 1950s, the base was used by the USAF
for Air Rescue squadrons for four years. The station (code name Silksheen) closed in 1958. It was sold by the government in 1964.
sheds owned by Mansfield
's J.B.Eastwood Ltd, was bought in 1981 by Fred and Harold Panton, and is now home to an air museum, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
. In 1988, they bought Just Jane the gate guardian Lancaster
bomber from RAF Scampton
, which is regularly taxied out and stood with the four Rolls Royce
Merlin XXIV engines running. Just Jane is one of only three airworthy Lancasters still capable of flying, but does not fly as the privately run museum cannot afford the £2,000,000 currently needed for an air worthiness certificate.
NX611 was built by Austin Aero Ltd
at their Cofton Hackett Works
just south of Birmingham
, rolling out of the Flight Shed on 16 April 1945, when it was put into storage, and in 1952, it was one of 54 Lancasters sold to the French Naval Air Arm, (L’Aeronavale) for £50,000 each as part of a 1951 NATO arrangement. It was designated WU-15 (Western Union). In June 1961,it joined Escadrille 9S (Surveillance), in Nouméa, New Caledonia.
On 15 April 1964, it accompanied Lancaster NX665 (WU-13), on delivery to the RNZAF, from New Caledonia to Auckland, New Zealand, returning to New Caledonia, with the crew of NX665. In 1965, its service with the L’Aeronavale over,, due to spares shortages and maintenance problems, it was flown to England and on 12 September 1965, was in the Skyfame Museum at Staverton airfield, Gloucestershire. It had flown 2,330 hours. It was registered as G - ASXX and later stood as the gate guardian at RAF Scampton
before being acquired by the museum owners.
The control tower
is believed to be haunted. The airfield was featured in a 1980s BBC series about WWII airfields. Much of the runway is still intact today but mainly used by local farmers as hard standing and by model aircraft enthusiasts. Occasional civilian light aircraft have landed on the remaining runway in recent years and the airfield still appears on Civil Aviation Maps as a diversion emergency landing location.
A memorial
to the fallen can be found outside the main gate where the guard house
once stood.
In 2008 the museum opened an unlicenced part-grass and part-concrete landing strip for visiting military and civil aircraft. No aircraft should land without contacting the owners first via the museum's website or telephone number. Air traffic control on flying display days is from RAF Coningsby
and there is a six mile "no fly" exclusion zone around East Kirkby on display days.
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
base near the village of East Kirkby
East Kirkby
East Kirkby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the A155 south-east of Horncastle....
, south of Horncastle in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, just off the A155. The Greenwich meridian
Prime Meridian
The Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
passes through the base.
History
The base opened on 20 August 1943 as a Bomber Command Station and is situated not far from RAF ConingsbyRAF Coningsby
RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force station in Lincolnshire, England. It has been commanded by Group Captain Martin Sampson since 10 December 2010.-Operational units:...
.
Stationed at East Kirkby were:
- No. 57 Squadron RAFNo. 57 Squadron RAF-History:57 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed on 8 June 1916 at Copmanthorpe, Yorkshire. In December 1916 the squadron was posted to France equipped with the FE2d. The squadron re-equipped with Airco DH4s in May 1917 and commenced long range bombing and reconnaissance operations near...
(5 GroupNo. 5 Group RAFNo. 5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane.-History:The Group was formed on 1 September 1937 with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall....
) 27 August 1943 - 25 November 1945 - No. 630 Squadron RAFNo. 630 Squadron RAFNo. 630 Squadron RAF was a heavy bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.-History:The squadron was formed at RAF East Kirkby, near Spilsby in Lincolnshire on 15 November 1943 from 'B' Flight of No. 57 Squadron RAF, equipped with Lancaster Mk.I bombers as part of No. 5...
(5 GroupNo. 5 Group RAFNo. 5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane.-History:The Group was formed on 1 September 1937 with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall....
) 15 November 1943 - 18 July 1945
RAF East Kirkby served also as the headquarters of No 5/5 (Bomber) Group RAF in command of satellite stations at RAF Strubby, RAF Spilsby
RAF Spilsby
-Units and aircraft based at Spilsby:-References:*Halpenny, Bruce Barrymore Action Stations: Wartime Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands v. 2 -External links:*...
, RAF Hemswell
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hemswell was an airfield used by RAF Bomber Command for 20 years between 1937 and 1957 and saw most of its operational life during World War II. Later used by RAF Fighter Command as a nuclear ballistic missile base during the Cold War it closed to military use in 1967...
and RAF Manby.
Operations
On April 17 1945, near the end of the Second World War, a 57 Squadron Lancaster was being loaded with bombs when a fully armed 1,000lb bomb was unintentionally dropped onto the tarmac. Because the bomb had had its fuseFuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
inserted it detonated, setting off the rest of the Lancaster's bombload. A massive explosion killed three airmen, injured 16 others, wrote off six other Lancasters beyond repair and badly damaged a nearby aircraft hangar.
The final wartime raid from East Kirkby was flown on 25 April 1945. In total, 212 operations were carried out during the war, from which 121 Lancasters did not return. Another 29 aircraft were lost due to operational crashes or accidents.
Post war
630 Squadron disbanded in July that year and its place was taken by No. 460 Squadron RAAFNo. 460 Squadron RAAF
No. 460 Squadron is an Royal Australian Air Force intelligence unit active within the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation . It was first formed as a heavy bomber squadron during World War II on November 15, 1941 and disbanded on 10 October 1945 after seeing extensive combat over Europe. The...
from RAF Binbrook
RAF Binbrook
RAF Binbrook was a Bomber Command station during World War II. After the war it was amongst others the home of the Central Fighter Establishment...
. This squadron joined No. 57 for transfer to the Far East as part of Tiger Force
Tiger Force (air)
Tiger Force, also known as the Very Long Range Bomber Force, was the name given to a World War II British Commonwealth long-range heavy bomber force, formed in 1945, from squadrons serving with RAF Bomber Command in Europe, for proposed use against targets in Japan...
. In the 1950s, the base was used by the USAF
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
for Air Rescue squadrons for four years. The station (code name Silksheen) closed in 1958. It was sold by the government in 1964.
Aircraft museum
The airfield, until that point being the site of broilerBroiler
A broiler is a type of chicken raised specifically for meat production. Modern commercial broilers, typically known as Cornish crosses or Cornish-Rocks are specially bred for large scale, efficient meat production and grow much faster than egg or traditional dual purpose breeds...
sheds owned by Mansfield
Mansfield
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....
's J.B.Eastwood Ltd, was bought in 1981 by Fred and Harold Panton, and is now home to an air museum, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, England, was founded in 1988 by Lincolnshire farmers Fred and Harold Panton, as a memorial to their brother Pilot Officer Christopher Panton, who along with 55,000 other aircrew of RAF Bomber Command lost his life during World War II...
. In 1988, they bought Just Jane the gate guardian Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomber from RAF Scampton
RAF Scampton
Royal Air Force Station Scampton is a Royal Air Force station situated north of Lincoln in England, near the village of Scampton, on the site of an old First World War landing field.-First World War:...
, which is regularly taxied out and stood with the four Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
Merlin XXIV engines running. Just Jane is one of only three airworthy Lancasters still capable of flying, but does not fly as the privately run museum cannot afford the £2,000,000 currently needed for an air worthiness certificate.
NX611 was built by Austin Aero Ltd
Longbridge plant
The Longbridge plant is an industrial complex situated in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is currently owned by SAIC Group and is a manufacturing and research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary....
at their Cofton Hackett Works
Cofton Hackett
Cofton Hackett is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England. It is situated 10.3 miles south west of the city centre of Birmingham and 24 miles north east of Worcester...
just south of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, rolling out of the Flight Shed on 16 April 1945, when it was put into storage, and in 1952, it was one of 54 Lancasters sold to the French Naval Air Arm, (L’Aeronavale) for £50,000 each as part of a 1951 NATO arrangement. It was designated WU-15 (Western Union). In June 1961,it joined Escadrille 9S (Surveillance), in Nouméa, New Caledonia.
On 15 April 1964, it accompanied Lancaster NX665 (WU-13), on delivery to the RNZAF, from New Caledonia to Auckland, New Zealand, returning to New Caledonia, with the crew of NX665. In 1965, its service with the L’Aeronavale over,, due to spares shortages and maintenance problems, it was flown to England and on 12 September 1965, was in the Skyfame Museum at Staverton airfield, Gloucestershire. It had flown 2,330 hours. It was registered as G - ASXX and later stood as the gate guardian at RAF Scampton
RAF Scampton
Royal Air Force Station Scampton is a Royal Air Force station situated north of Lincoln in England, near the village of Scampton, on the site of an old First World War landing field.-First World War:...
before being acquired by the museum owners.
The control tower
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
is believed to be haunted. The airfield was featured in a 1980s BBC series about WWII airfields. Much of the runway is still intact today but mainly used by local farmers as hard standing and by model aircraft enthusiasts. Occasional civilian light aircraft have landed on the remaining runway in recent years and the airfield still appears on Civil Aviation Maps as a diversion emergency landing location.
A memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
to the fallen can be found outside the main gate where the guard house
Guardhouse
A guardhouse is a building used to house personnel and security equipment...
once stood.
In 2008 the museum opened an unlicenced part-grass and part-concrete landing strip for visiting military and civil aircraft. No aircraft should land without contacting the owners first via the museum's website or telephone number. Air traffic control on flying display days is from RAF Coningsby
RAF Coningsby
RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force station in Lincolnshire, England. It has been commanded by Group Captain Martin Sampson since 10 December 2010.-Operational units:...
and there is a six mile "no fly" exclusion zone around East Kirkby on display days.