Royal Air Force Fiskerton or more simply RAF Fiskerton was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

substation A substation is a part of an electrical Electricity generation, generation, electric power transmission, transmission, and electric power distribution, distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or pe ...

located north of the

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

village of Fiskerton, east of

Lincoln, Lincolnshire Lincoln () is a cathedral city and district in Lincolnshire, England, of which it is the county town. In the 2021 Census, the city's district had a population of 103,813. The 2021 census gave the urban area of Lincoln, including Bracebridge He ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The airfield closed at the end of the war in 1945 being a satellite to RAF Scampton and very little now exists. The station was home to some 2000 personnel during the war, and various technical sites were in what is now the village of Fiskerton. A small cluster of semi-derelict buildings still exist and are still in use at the end of the present village on the road out to short ferry. Drake's view is the entrance to these old buildings.

History

It was one of many new bomber airfields built in the early part of the Second World War. The airfield was situated north of the village. It was one of only 15 RAF airfields equipped with FIDO, a fog-clearing system utilising petrol pumped through pipes alongside the main runway and burned via a sequence of nozzles. No. 49 Squadron RAF and No. 576 Squadron RAF were stationed at RAF Fiskerton. 49 Squadron took part in the

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...

raid on the research and development centre for the V2 missile. 576 Squadron took part in the raid on Hitler's hideout at

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps. South of the town, the Be ...

and in

Operation Manna Operation Manna was the Code word (communication), codeword for a Second World War operation by the British and Greek forces in Greece in mid-October 1944, following the gradual withdrawal of the Axis Occupation of Greece, German occupying for ...

. During WWII,

Billy Strachan William Arthur Watkin Strachan (16 April 1921 – 26 April 1998) was a British communist, civil rights activist, and pilot. He is most noted for his achievements as a bomber pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, and f ...

, who would go onto become a pioneer of Black civil rights in Britain, took part in 15 bombing missions from RAF Fiskerton as a member of 576 Squadron. Between 1962 and 1992 a Headquarters of the Royal Observer Corps was located within the airfield boundary. The following units were here at some point: * No. 61 Maintenance Unit RAF * No. 93 Maintenance Unit RAF * No. 141 Squadron RAF *

No. 150 Squadron RAF No. 150 Squadron RAF was an aircraft squadron of the Royal Air Force during World War I and World War II.Gunston (1978) In the early 1960s it was briefly reformed as a Strategic Missile squadron operating the PGM-17 Thor, Thor IRBM. World War I ...

with the Lancaster * No. 255 Maintenance Unit RAF * No. 1514 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF * No. 1690 Bomber (Defence) Training Flight RAF * No. 2753 Squadron RAF Regiment * No. 2799 Squadron RAF Regiment

Current use

Very little now remains of the old airfield. Land which once formed part of the aerodrome was donated by the owner, the late Geoff Stuffin, so a memorial to 49 and 576 Squadrons could be erected. Today the memorial can be found on the side of the road near the old main runway together with a plaque recording the generosity of Mr Stuffin. The majority of the rest of the airfield was handed back to the farmers.

Gallery

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

FiskertonAirfield.org.ukAirfields & Aviation Memorials

RAF Fiskerton
in the IBCC Digital Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fiskerton Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire