Bomber County
Lancaster ‘Just Jane’ at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
South Lincolnshire’s rich aviation
heritage has its roots in the RAF
expansion programme as war loomed
again in the mid-1930s.
By 1940 the throttle was fully out in
the search for prospective airfields. It
was to be a war where aviation was
used to devastating effect.
Lincolnshire’s location on the east
of the country made it the ideal launch
pad for potential bomber offensives.
Saltby, Folkingham, Fulbeck and North
Witham were the result.
The Air Ministry demanded larger
airfields, with facilities hidden to reduce
risk of attack. Any trees and hedges
that needed grubbing up were retained
on maps for security reasons and waste
oil and creosote used to imitate ground
shadows to deceive enemy aircraft.
Bombers needed a main runway of
6
1,829 metres with subsidiary runways
of 1,463m and up to 41 cm of concrete.
Fighters needed 1,280 and 1,006
metres respectively. They could not
be steeper than 1 in 30; hence the
attraction of Lincolnshire’s wide open
and relatively flat spaces.
Even Lincoln Cathedral played its
part, as a landmark for pilots during
WWII.
Its Airman’s Chapel houses the
Memorial Books of 1 & 5 Groups, RAF
Bomber Command.
Lincoln itself was one of the top five
manufacturing centres of the Great
War, with more than 5,000 aircraft
constructed in city factories.
By the end of the war in 1945 the
county had 49 operational airfields.
Of these, 28 were bomber bases,
more than any other in Great Britain.