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 East Kirkby in Lincolnshire is a late-war Bomber Command station whose history is tied tightly to No. 5 Group and the Avro Lancaster. The airfield opened in August 1943, built with the long concrete runways and dispersal system required for heavy night bomber operations. From the start it was designed to generate a steady rhythm of sorties: aircraft prepared and launched at scale, then recovered and turned around for the next night’s work.
The principal wartime unit was No. 57 Squadron, which arrived with Lancasters at the end of August 1943 after conversion to the type. East Kirkby became the squadron’s base for the remainder of the war. 57 Squadron’s operations were the hard core of the strategic bombing campaign: deep raids into Germany, attacks on industrial cities and transport hubs, and mining operations designed to disrupt shipping. The airfield’s location in Lincolnshire placed it within one of the densest concentrations of heavy bomber stations in the world, where the night sky could fill with aircraft forming up for routes east across the North Sea.
East Kirkby is also significant for the creation of No. 630 Squadron. Formed on 15 November 1943 from ‘B’ Flight of 57 Squadron, 630 Squadron operated Lancasters from the same airfield under the same group. Having two heavy bomber squadrons on one station increased operational output but also intensified every other pressure: maintenance hours, servicing space, crew rest, and the constant challenge of keeping aircraft serviceable through winter weather and combat damage.
One of the airfield’s most defining events happened far from enemy action. On 17 April 1945, while bombs were being loaded for a raid, a 1,000-lb bomb exploded and triggered a chain reaction. Several Lancasters were destroyed and others damaged. The incident underlines a truth of Bomber Command life: danger existed on the ground as well as in the air. Handling large quantities of explosives, fuel and oxygen in a hurried operational environment carried risks that could be catastrophic even before a crew reached the runway.
The human story at East Kirkby is the story of endurance. Aircrew faced repeated long sorties in darkness, intense flak, fighter threat and the strain of losses. Ground crews worked through the night to patch battle damage, change engines, repair hydraulics, and re-arm aircraft in time for the next operation. The airfield community depended on routine and discipline – briefings, checklists, servicing cycles – because routine was the only way to sustain the tempo.
After 1945 the airfield’s military use ended, but East Kirkby’s wartime identity remained unusually tangible. The survival of elements of the site and strong local remembrance have helped preserve the story of 5 Group’s Lancaster stations and the men and women who made heavy bomber operations possible night after night.
East Kirkby’s place in the story is strengthened by the way it helps visitors understand process: from briefing and meteorology to take-off discipline, bombing, return and debrief. A heavy-bomber station was an industrial system with human beings at its centre, and East Kirkby exemplifies that system at full stretch.