Royal Air Force Swinderby or more simply RAF Swinderby was a

Royal Air Force station The Royal Air Force (RAF) operates several stations throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. This includes front-line and training air bases, support, administrative and training stations with no flying activity, unmanned airfields used fo ...

airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s. It was built near the village of

Swinderby Swinderby is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The village is situated just north of the A46 road, south-west from Lincoln and north-east from Newark. Swinderby lies within a rural agricul ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, 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-we ...

just off the south east side of the A46 (the

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis (Bath), ...

) between

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road bypasses the town on the line ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

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 ...

. The station closed on 17 December 1993. The

Explorer Scouts Explorer Scouts, frequently shortened to Explorers, is the fifth section of The Scout Association in the United Kingdom for 14- to 18-year-olds. The section was introduced in 2001 and formally launched in February 2002, alongside Scout Network ...

unit based in the village of Swinderby, is named EGXS, a reference to the ICAO location indicator of the airfield. Their badge includes the layout of Swinderby's runways.

History

Under the command of No. 1 Group RAF, Swinderby came under the auspices 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 ...

and housed several bomber squadrons, among others No. 300 Polish Bomber Squadron and

No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron "Land of Pomerania" ( pl, 301 Dywizjon Bombowy "Ziemi Pomorskiej") was a Polish World War II bomber (1940-1943) and special duties squadron (1944-1946), belonging to Polish Air Forces in Great Britain. It fought al ...

, initially flying the

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and ...

, then

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

. Other squadrons operated aircraft, such as the

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 ...

. On 16 July 1941 the newly created

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...

Colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

was presented to

General Sikorski A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

, the Polish Commander-in-Chief, in the presence of many dignitaries, in a solemn ceremony at RAF Swinderby. It was then handed to No. 300 Bomber Squadron, the senior Polish Squadron in Britain, resident at Swinderby. Thereafter it was rotated to other Polish Squadrons every 3 months. In the 1950s and early 1960s it was the home of

No. 8 Flying Training School RAF No. 8 Flying Training School (8 FTS) is a former Royal Air Force flying training school that operated between 1936 and 1964. History First formation * 1 Jan 1936 – 25 Mar 1942 8 FTS at RAF Montrose became 8 SFTS on 3 September 1939 and was d ...

, converting trainee pilots to

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and the first to be powered by ...

s. In 1956 it hosted a brief experiment to keep all the flying training to wings stage straight through on one base. This was abandoned after a month due to the obvious danger of collisions in the circuit between the Vampires and the much slower piston engined

Percival Provost The Percival P.56 Provost is a basic trainer aircraft that was designed and manufactured by British aviation company Percival. During the 1950s, the Provost was developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a replacement for the Percival Prentic ...

basic trainers. Passing out parade at RAF Swinderby (b)

In 1964 RAF Swinderby changed its role to that of

recruit training Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique deman ...

when No.7 School of Recruit Training, formerly at RAF Bridgnorth, opened at RAF Swinderby. It became responsible for the basic training of all male enlisted personnel prior to their trade training, in August 1964 intake 7/46 was the first pass out parade at RAF Swinderby. Females were still trained at

RAF Hereford RAF Credenhill, also known as RAF Hereford, was a non-flying station of the Royal Air Force situated in the village of Credenhill near Hereford, United Kingdom. It was commissioned in 1940 and served as home for a range of training schools from 1 ...

in 1976 and in 1982 the very first integrated Flight (i.e. male and female recruits) passed out in November at RAF Swinderby. In July 1993 No.1 Squadron 6 Flight was the final pass out parade before the RAF School of Recruit Training moved to

RAF Halton Royal Air Force Halton, or more simply RAF Halton, is one of the largest Royal Air Force stations in the United Kingdom. It is located near the village of Halton near Wendover, Buckinghamshire. The site has been in use since the First World W ...

. A live LP recording of a passing out parade was made in 1973, featuring the Midland Band of the Royal Air Force. It included all the commands and sounds of the parade. RAF Swinderby closed on 17 December 1993, with the Joint Elementary Flying Training Squadron having previously moved to RAF Topcliffe in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

Current use

RAF SWINDERBY Memorial Information Board

In 1995 the station was put up for sale, where the land was purchased by

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries ...

for commercial mining. However, Cemex continued to rent the land to International Antiques & Collectors Fairs five times a year for the Swinderby Antiques Fair. In 2013 the

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s and the

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

tower remained in evidence along with acres of concrete runways and taxiways but most of the other buildings on the technical site have been demolished. In 2014 only 2 hangars remained, but the control tower was demolished. The domestic site has been developed as the new village of Witham St Hughs with only the former Officer's Married Quarters and Airmen's Married Quarters remaining. The new village hall has an information board giving the history of RAF Swinderby. On 10 May 2014 a memorial was dedicated to all those Servicemen and Servicewomen who served at RAF Swinderby from 1940 to 1993. It is situated by the modern village hall, adjacent to the information board and the bench "Remembering No. 300 & No. 301 Polish Squadrons who served with the Royal Air Force at RAF Swinderby during WW II".

Squadrons

References

*Arkady Fiedler: ''303 SQUADRON – The Legendary Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron'' (Aquila Polonica (U.S.) Ltd, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 2010, ).

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

Official RAF History of SwinderbyPhotos of the base todayMore Photos

RAF Swinderby
at the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinderby 1940 establishments in the United Kingdom 1994 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Military installations closed in 1994 Education in Lincolnshire North Kesteven District Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Training establishments of the Royal Air Force