Royal Air Force Harlaxton or more simply RAF Harlaxton is a former

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 near the village of

Harlaxton Harlaxton is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the edge of the Vale of Belvoir and just off the A607, south-west from Grantham and north-east from Melton Mowbray. History Ae ...

, south west of

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

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. The airfield was located in a triangle of flat fields midway between

Harlaxton Manor Harlaxton is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the edge of the Vale of Belvoir and just off the A607, south-west from Grantham and north-east from Melton Mowbray. History Ae ...

(now the

University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton College, in Grantham, England. UE offers more than 80 differ ...

's British campus) and the nearby village of Stroxton. Originally constructed as a

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

aerodrome in November 1916 it closed between the wars, reopening in 1942 as a Royal Air Force flying training establishment until its final closure in 1957. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Harlaxton Manor was requisitioned by the

as the station's officers' mess and later to temporarily house the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division.

History

The airfield opened in November 1916 as a Royal Flying Corps training aerodrome with three grassed runways laid out in an equilateral triangle, unusually oriented to the north. The aerodrome remained busy throughout the First World War as a flying training establishment with a large number of aircraft present, flying mostly a motley assortment of

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

DH marques and

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

The Royal Flying Corps' No.98 Squadron formed at Harlaxton from elements drawn from the training squadrons. After training at the station and

Old Sarum Airfield Old Sarum Airfield is a grass strip airfield north-north-east of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. The adjacent areas are a mix of vacant land, residential and industrial sites. Residential areas are to the south and east, occupying the old air ...

the squadron was deployed to France in a day-bombing role flying DH-9s. Aerial travel for Business or Pleasure - Thos Cook & Son - 1919 - pp 16+ (map)

From 1919, civilian services operated. The station was mothballed and placed on a care and maintenance basis between the wars. Surveyed in 1937 as a possible fighter airfield for the defence of Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham it was decided that the terrain was unsuitable for tarmac runways. Instead the grass runways were retained and a major building expansion programme was undertaken. In 1942 RAF Harlaxton reopened as a satellite field and relief landing ground for the flying training squadron posted to

RAF Spitalgate Royal Air Force Spitalgate or more simply RAF Spitalgate formerly known as RFC Grantham and RAF Grantham was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station, located south east of the centre of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England fronting onto th ...

, Grantham under the command of No. 21 (Training) Group RAF. Harlaxton Manor was requisitioned by the War Department and utilised as the station's officers' mess. In the period ahead of the D-day invasion the manor also housed the Headquarters of the Army's 1st Airborne Division during their detailed preparations. As the war came to a close the station continued in a satellite and occasional relief landing ground role but now for the flying training facility at

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the Royal Air Force College (RAFC), which trai ...

. When flying training at Cranwell switched to jet aircraft in the mid-1950s Harlaxton's grass runways were no longer suitable and the RAF station finally closed in 1957. A

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December ...

aircraft spotting post was located on the north-east perimeter of the airfield during the Second World War and would have been responsible for initiating air raid warnings to the Grantham area during hostilities. An underground nuclear bunker was built on the same site in the 1960s and was used throughout the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. The underground post was only abandoned in 1991 when the ROC was stood down and now stands derelict after a fire was started by vandals.

Harlaxton incidents

On 29 January 1945 a

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...

transport aircraft attempted an emergency landing at Harlaxton and suffered major airframe damage during the incident. The accident investigators found that the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and it was written off. The crew suffered only minor injuries and there were no fatalities. UK bomb disposal teams were having continuing problems dealing with German 2 kilogram

butterfly bomb A Butterfly Bomb (or ''Sprengbombe Dickwandig 2 kg'' or SD 2) was a German anti-personnel submunition used by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It was so named because the thin cylindrical metal outer shell which hinged open when ...

s as no examples had been safely dismantled to learn the process. Whilst dealing with eight that had fallen on RAF Harlaxton and failed to explode, Flight Sergeant Hanford of RAF Bomb Disposal from nearby

RAF Digby Royal Air Force Digby otherwise known as RAF Digby is a Royal Air Force station located near Scopwick and south east of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, England. The station is home to the tri-service Joint Service Signals Organi ...

noticed that the arming rods had not fully withdrawn. He screwed them back by hand into the

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze d ...

s enabling the bomb disposal scientists to dismantle them and use them for instructional purposes. Hanford was later awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

for this feat of extreme bravery.RAF bomb disposal history

List of units posted to RAF Harlaxton

The airfield today

Little sign of the airfield remains today, and its runways have been returned to agriculture. The M&E building in the farmyard stands derelict. There are, however, the remains of a standard "Allen-Williams Turret" rotatable anti-aircraft defence installation. Unlike many former Lincolnshire airfields, no permanent memorial plaque exists. The site is now owned by a company who have restored the air raid shelters and main building and erection of a memorial is planned.

References

Citations

Bibliography

Bruce Barrymore Halpenny Bruce Barrymore Halpenny (1937 – 3 May 2015) was an English people, English military historian and author, specialising in airfields and aircraft, as well as ghost stories and mysteries. He was also a Television presenter, broadcaster''Framlin ...

''Action Stations: Wartime Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands v. 2'' ()

External links

Photos of derelict buildings at RAF Harlaxton in October 2007

Aerial photograph of RAF Harlaxton during the First World War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harlaxton Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Military airbases established in 1916 Military installations closed in 1957 1916 establishments in England Royal Flying Corps airfields 1957 disestablishments in England