Royal Air Force Dunholme Lodge or more simply RAF Dunholme Lodge was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station located between the parishes of Welton and

Dunholme Dunholme is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A46 road, and north-east of Lincoln. The earliest written evidence concerning Dunholme is found in the 1086 Domesday Book. The v ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The grass airfield was first used by the Royal Air Force during 1941 and 1942 for use by

Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers ...

aircraft from nearby

RAF Scampton Royal Air Force Scampton or RAF Scampton is a Royal Air Force station located adjacent to the A15 road near to the village of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and north-west of the city of Lincoln, England. RAF Scampton stands on the site of a Firs ...

, and was officially opened as a RAF Station in September 1942 as part of

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

with the building of three hard runways. The main occupier of the station was 44 Squadron, with the

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirlin ...

four-engined heavy bomber, which moved in from

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England. The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...

in May 1943 and stayed until it moved to RAF Spilsby in September 1944. In November 1944 flying operations ceased due to the proximity of other stations which did not allow night flying. At the end of the war 120 Lancasters had been lost on operations from Dunholme Lodge. From 1948 the site was host to motorcycle and car racing until 1959 when the base was reopened as an active RAF station. The

William Farr School William Farr School, formally William Farr C of E Comprehensive School, is a Church of England academy school for 11 to 18-year-olds located within the town of Welton, Lincolnshire, England, north-east of Lincoln, near the A46. Despite being ...

was opened in 1952 on part of the disused domestic site. On re-opening in 1959, the airfield became a site for

Bristol Bloodhound The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...

surface-to-air missiles with 141 Squadron until it was disbanded and the station finally closed in 1964.

Based units

The following units were also here at some point: * Detachment of

No. 14 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF No. 14 (Advanced) Flying Training School (14 (A)FTS) is a former Royal Air Force flying training school that operated between 1939 and 1953. References Citations Bibliography * External links {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Mili ...

(April 1942) * No. 1485 (Bomber) Gunnery Flight RAF (August – October 1942) * No. 1518 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF * No. 2799 Squadron RAF Regiment, a Light Anti-Aircraft squadron., Chapter 2, United Kingdom 1942-45. * Air Bomber Training Flight, No. 5 Group (August – October 1942) * General Aircraft Limited

Current use

Bits of the runways still exist and the site is now used for farming.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Official History

RAF Dunholme Lodge
from the IBCC Digital Archive at the University of Lincoln. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunholme Lodge Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom