RAF North Witham

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Map sources for RAF North Witham at grid reference SK947229

RAF North Witham at British national grid reference SK947229, an air station of the Second World War period, established by the British Royal Air Force, was lent to the United States Army Air Forcess and is now abandoned in Twyford Wood, Colsterworth, Lincolnshire. Its control tower is at National Grid reference SK946222, the centre of this map.

1 Development
2 Bomb disposal
3 Modern Times
4 Aerial photograph
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Development

It was designed as a bomber airfield as part of the RAF's rapid expansion during World War II. As it came to completion, it was more specifically part of the preparation for Operation Overlord. It opened officially on 15 December 1943, the first RAF personnel having arrived the day before. Having been established, it was given the USAAF designation, Army Air Force Station 479 and its first American personnel arrived on 31 December 1943. They had been accommodated at the nearby RAF Cottesmore, otherwise known as USAAF Station 489.

By mid February, the station had been brought up to strength and was re-designated as 29th Air Depot Group. Its immediate task was to distribute transport aircraft and the means of maintaining them, to operational groups of the USAAF. At this time, that meant handling the type known by its maker, Douglas as the DC-3, to the RAF as the Dakota and to the USAAF as the C-47.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the Day. `Full victory-nothing else' to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. Note the tents.

In March, as well as these, the American unit, the Pathfinder School, moved in to train pathfinder parachutists to act as scouts, provided with radio communication, including beacons, ahead of a main drop of parachute troops. At this stage, much of the living accommodation was under canvas.

The culmination of the station's career came on 5 June 1944, when the pathfinders of US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions took off for Normandy, leading the American side of Operation Overlord. Training of Polish airborne troops followed but by December, the war had moved on and the Air Depot Group began to move to France.

[edit] Bomb disposal

By April 1945, the Americans had gone. In May 1945 it became a bomb dump under 100 Maintenance Unit. There had been bomb dumps in fields and roadsides all round the country especially in a county like Lincolnshire, full of Bomber Command air stations. These were decommissioned as quickly as possible and the bombs brought to more secure places to await the slower process of decommissioning the bombs themselves. 100 MU had been at nearby RAF South Witham since March 1942 and as operational demand died off, the unit expanded from Morkery Wood onto the runways of North Witham.

[edit] Modern Times

The Site was originally partially wooded and some of this remained to the north-east of the runways throughout the military period but after closure, the Forestry Commission planted most of the airfield with oak (Quercus robur) and conifers. Part of it is now a reserve for butterflies and the concrete is slowly being broken up and removed. However, the southern end of the airfield is something of an industrial estate and its proximity to a junction of the A1 road means that development is pressing against the wood from the north-west. Nonetheless the derelict control tower remains and on a warm summer's day, on the runway, in the quiet of the trees, it is a very atmospheric place.