RAF East Kirkby
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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.
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[edit] History
The base opened on 20 August 1943 as a Bomber Command Station and is situated not far from RAF Coningsby.
Stationed at East Kirkby were:
- No. 57 Squadron RAF (5 Group) 27 August 1943 - 27 November 1945
- No. 630 Squadron RAF (5 Group) 15 November 1943 - 18 July 1945
[edit] Operations
On April 17 1945, near the end of the war, a 1,000lb bomb was dropped in the darkness when a 57 Squadron Lancaster's bombload was being loaded. The explosion set off the remainder of the Lancaster's bombload, putting six other Lancasters beyond repair, badly damaging a hangar, and killing four people.
The last raid from East Kirkby was flown on 25 April 1945. In total, 212 operations were carried out from this airfield from which 121 Lancasters failed to return. Another 29 were lost in operational crashes/accidents.
[edit] Post war
630 Squadron disbanded in July that year and its place was taken by No. 460 Squadron RAAF 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.
[edit] Aircraft museum
The airfield, until that point being the site of broiler 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.
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 used by local farmers as hard standing
A memorial to the fallen can be found outside the main gate where the guard house once stood.
