Full WW2 control tower details and photos for this wartime airfield are coming soon. Please check back later as this is work progress. If you would like to contribute information or photos please get in touch.
RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire near Horncastle, is best known for later jet eras, but its Second World War record is firmly tied to Bomber Command and the evolution of Britain’s night offensive. Plans for the station began in 1937 as part of RAF expansion, though land acquisition delays meant the airfield did not open until 4 November 1940, by which time the war’s demands were escalating rapidly.
Coningsby opened under No. 5 Group, Bomber Command, and quickly became operational. No. 106 Squadron arrived in February 1941 equipped with Handley Page Hampdens and began active operations the following month, including early raids such as attacks on Cologne. Soon after, No. 97 Squadron joined with Avro Manchesters, a type that represented the RAF’s difficult transition toward truly heavy bombers. In May 1942, aircraft from Coningsby took part in the ‘Thousand Bomber’ raid on Cologne, a landmark operation that combined strategic messaging with a real attempt to overwhelm German defences.
Early wartime limitations shaped the station. The original grass runways were unsuitable for the growing weight and intensity of bomber operations, and Coningsby was closed between September 1942 and August 1943 while paved runways and additional infrastructure were installed. This pause was not a retreat but an upgrade: the RAF was standardising bomber bases for the Lancaster era and Coningsby needed the surfaces and hardstandings to sustain heavy, round-the-clock operations.
When flying returned in August 1943 the airfield gained one of the most famous units in RAF history: No. 617 Squadron, the ‘Dambusters’, equipped with Avro Lancasters. Coningsby was 617’s base from August 1943 until January 1944. Because of its specialist character, the squadron’s operations from Coningsby were selective, but the period included notable work such as Operation Garlic, a difficult canal-attack mission against the Dortmund-Ems Canal in which losses were heavy. The squadron later moved to RAF Woodhall Spa to gain more space and facilities for specialist tasks.
Coningsby continued as a Lancaster station and hosted additional squadrons during the latter part of the war, including No. 619 Squadron and other 5 Group units operating heavy bombers on mining and bombing operations. These squadrons participated in the grinding, high-casualty campaign that struck industrial targets, transport nodes and oil infrastructure across occupied Europe and Germany, and supported late-war attacks against ports and shipping.
By the end of the conflict Coningsby had become a mature heavy-bomber base: paved runways, dispersal areas, and the organisational rhythm of Bomber Command operations. Post-war, the station transitioned through Mosquito units and then into the jet age, but its wartime identity is inseparable from the story of 5 Group and the Lancaster force – an airfield that grew from a delayed expansion project into a key platform for Britain’s strategic air offensive.
Because Coningsby served both medium and heavy bomber phases, it is also a useful case study in how Bomber Command upgraded stations: resurfacing runways, expanding dispersals and rebuilding hangarage to match the Lancaster generation.