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RAF Bruntingthorpe, near Lutterworth in Leicestershire, was a Bomber Command training station built to support the RAF’s expanding need for trained bomber crews. Constructed in 1941-42 and opening for flying in November 1942, it operated under Bomber Command’s training organisation (No. 92 Group, which controlled many OTU stations). Bruntingthorpe was designed for throughput: taking partially trained airmen and turning them into cohesive, operational crews.
The station’s principal wartime resident was No. 29 Operational Training Unit (OTU). Bruntingthorpe was initially a satellite station in 1942-43 and carried the station code ‘BP’ in wartime documentation. OTUs were the final stepping-stone before crews went to front-line squadrons. At Bruntingthorpe, 29 OTU initially operated Vickers Wellington bombers – robust twin-engine aircraft ideal for training because they handled like ‘real’ bombers and carried the full crew positions trainees needed to master. As the war progressed, training across Bomber Command increasingly fed into heavier types, and Bruntingthorpe’s programme evolved in step with that wider shift, with later conversion onto heavier aircraft undertaken within the training system.
At an OTU the flying was demanding and structured. Crews rehearsed navigation across Britain by day and night, practised formation discipline, and learned the routines that would later become second nature on operations: pre-flight checks, engine management, fuel planning, oxygen discipline, radio procedure and emergency drills. Bomb aimers worked up to timed runs and accurate releases; wireless operators practised standard messages and logging; gunners trained in lookout, identification and engagement. Instructors were effectively teaching survival as much as technique.
OTU stations also had to reproduce operational pressure. That meant night flying in marginal weather, long cross-country routes that tested navigation and teamwork, and repeated landings and diversions to build confidence when things went wrong. Crews learned how to deal with icing, cloud-base limitations, mechanical failures and the fatigue that came with night schedules – exactly the stresses they would encounter on active service.
Bruntingthorpe hosted additional specialist activity linked to bomber operations. No. 1683 Bomber (Defence) Training Flight was based here for a period (mid-1943 into early 1944), and the station also saw the Bombing Analysis School in 1944 – evidence of the RAF’s drive to learn from operations, improve bombing accuracy, and feed lessons back into training. Even small gains in technique could translate into major operational effects when multiplied across thousands of sorties.
By 1945, as the air war moved toward its conclusion, the need for mass crew output reduced sharply. No. 29 OTU was disbanded in May 1945, bringing Bruntingthorpe’s main wartime function to a close. Like many OTU stations, it then entered a period of reduced flying and post-war re-use, but its Second World War contribution stands clearly: it helped produce the trained bomber crews that sustained Bomber Command’s offensive during the critical middle years of the war.