RAF Wainfleet 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 ...

weapons range on

The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...

on the east coast of England near Wainfleet, in the civil parish of Friskney, although the north-east part of the range was in Wainfleet St Mary. Other ranges nearby include RAF Holbeach, also on The Wash, and RAF Donna Nook. It was also known as The Wash (North side) Bombing Range. It was only a few miles south-west of Gibraltar Point.

History

The range opened to aerial operations in August 1938; but had previously been used as a range from 1890 by the 1st Lincolnshire Artillery. However, there is evidence that the area was in use for military practice as far back as Napoleonic times when the River Steeping was navigable and Wainfleet itself was an important harbour. During the 1920s and 1930s it was also used by the RAF and

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. Th
range
was administered by

RAF Coningsby Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south-west of Horncastle, and north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and h ...

as an Air Weapons Range within RAF Strike Command. During the Second World War, it was used by

617 Squadron Number 617 Squadron is a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron commonly known as The Dambusters for its actions during Operation Chastise against German dams during the World War II, Second World War, originally based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire ...

to test the Stabilised Automatic Bomb Sight. Postwar, it was used by both fixed wing and rotary aircraft from

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. On 1 April 2006 control was transferred to Defence Estates and the range was then administered by Defence Training Estates (East) from their headquarters at West Tofts Camp near

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

. Due to funding cuts the range was closed for operations on 2 December 2009 and finally closed in July 2010. The tower and some surrounding buildings reopened as holiday accommodation in 2017.

1981 air crash

A USAF

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 19 ...

aircraft crashed on Friday 8 May 1981 at 2.45 pm near Friskney. 25 year old First Lt Henry Louis Gagne, born on 14 February 1956, died in RAF Nocton Hall several hours later, of

Gulfport, Mississippi Gulfport ( ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States, and its co-county seat. It had a population of 72,926 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Mississippi, second-most populous ...

. He was an engineering graduate of

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

1983 air crash

An RAF

Hawker Siddeley Harrier The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British jet-powered attack aircraft designed and produced by the British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley. It was the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeo ...

''XV742'' crashed on Friday 28 October 1983. 24 year old Flying Officer John Sewell from St Anthony's Road in

Blundellsands Blundellsands is an area of Crosby in the ceremonial county of Merseyside, England and in the historic county of Lancashire. The area was created as a suburb for wealthy businessmen from Liverpool by the Blundell family of Crosby Hall in the m ...

was killed. The aircraft flew from RAF Wittering.

1990 air crash

On Monday 5 February 1990 at 5.30 pm, a USAF General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark aircraft crashed. One pilot was found at 7 pm by a boat from Boston. The Skegness lifeboat was looking for the other pilot. The pilot was found three days later strapped in the seat.

Operation

The site was controlled from th
Control Tower
Targets include
old ships
There were tw
smaller
wooden observation towers to the east nearer the shore but these were demolished in 2009. Access was via
narrow road
called ''Sea Lane'' via the junction with the A52 at the
Barley Mow
' at Friskney Eaudyke.

Weapons clearance

The site was cleared daily by the

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated fu ...

team from RAF Coningsby. Although the range has finally closed unrecovered ordnance and unexploded ordnance will remain for many years.

SSSI

The range area is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

thanks to the large number of resident and migrating birds found there. The location is a major stopping point for flocks of brent geese on their way from the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

coast. There is also the red-legged partridge. Skegness gets its weather recorded from the automatic equipment at Wainfleet.

References

Bibliography

External links

RAF website

Defence Estates

Abandoned seal found on the bombing range

Video clips

Weapons burst
by an

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twinjet, twin-turbofan, straight wing, straight-wing, Subsonic aircraft, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Republic ...

F-15
{{Royal Air Force bombing ranges Wainfleet Wainfleet Wainfleet Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District