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RAF Wellingore

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Airport type
  
Military

In use
  
1917-1947 (1947)

00/00
  
0

Owner
  
Air Ministry

Operator
  
Royal Air Force

Elevation AMSL
  
269 ft / 82 m

Year built
  
1917

RAF Wellingore i18photobucketcomalbumsb108lightening51gxxajpg

Location
  
Wellingore, Lincolnshire

Urbex abandoned bunkers at former raf wellingore


Royal Air Force Station Wellingore or more simply RAF Wellingore was a Second World War Royal Air Force fighter station located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) south of Navenby, Lincolnshire and 10 miles (16 km) south of Lincoln, England.

Contents

History

The airfield was originally opened in 1917 as a Royal Naval Air Service station called Wellingore Heath. The airfield reopened in 1935. By the winter of 1939/40, the airfield was fully operational and consisted of two grass runways, a concrete perimeter track and several hangars. It initially operated as a Relief Landing Ground (RLG) for RAF Cranwell before later operating as a satellite station for RAF Digby. Various squadrons equipped with Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheims and Beaufighters frew from the station.

The airfield was closed in 1947.

Squadrons

  • No. 11 Service Flying Training School.
  • No. 29 Squadron RAF (Blenheim then Beaufighter night fighters) - July 1940 to April 1941
  • No. 402 Squadron RAF (RCAF Spitfires) - May 1941 to June 1941 & January 1944 to April 1944
  • No. 412 Squadron RAF (RCAF Spitfires) - October 1941 to May 1942
  • No. 54 Squadron RAF - June 1942 to June 1942
  • No. 81 Squadron RAF (Spitfires) - September 1942 to October 1942
  • No. 154 Squadron RAF (Spitfires) - September 1942 to November 1942
  • No. 288 Squadron RAF - December 1942 to January 1943
  • No. 309 Squadron RAF.
  • No. 349 Squadron RAF (Spitfires) May 1943
  • No. 416 Squadron RAF (Hurricanes) - May 1943 to June 1943 & September 1943 to October 1943
  • No. 439 Squadron RAF (Hurricanes) - August 1943
  • No. 613 Squadron RAF (Mustangs) - April 1943 to May 1943
  • No. 17 Service Flying Training School - 1944-45 (Harvards & Oxfords)

    • John Gillespie Magee Jr

    In December 1941, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., author of the famous aviation poem "High Flight", took off from Wellingore on his final flight, in which he was killed.

    Post-war use

    The station was used as a prisoner of war camp before being handed back to the local land owner. Many of the original buildings, including the control have been demolished. A number of airfield defence concrete bunkers remain dotted around the airfield which has been returned to agricultural use.

    References

    RAF Wellingore Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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