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 Leicester East is best approached as part of the wartime pattern of satellites and relief landing grounds created around major towns and training concentrations. Wartime Britain needed a dense mesh of airfields, not only for front-line operations but to keep the training and movement system functioning under British weather and wartime wear. Smaller stations and landing grounds around Leicester provided runway capacity, dispersal options, and overflow space for the many flying schools and units operating across the Midlands.
In practice, a satellite or relief field could be used in several ways. It might host training circuits and landings practice to reduce congestion at a parent station. It might provide a dependable diversion runway when fog or low cloud closed other airfields. It might accept aircraft temporarily for dispersal during alerts, reducing vulnerability to attack or accident. These were not glamorous tasks, but they mattered because training output and aircraft preservation were strategic necessities. Losing aircraft and crews to weather-related accidents or congestion errors was a constant risk, and extra runway options reduced that risk.
Being located near a major city added another layer of value. Towns provided rail links, road networks, accommodation and services that supported the RAF’s people pipeline. Personnel could be moved, housed and supplied more efficiently, and administrative work could be done close to transport nodes. During the Allied build-up, the Midlands also carried increased traffic – ferry movements, communications flights, and the constant movement of personnel and equipment. A local airfield option reduced delays and helped the system stay smooth.
The ground organisation at a smaller station still had to be professional. Flying control, signals and meteorology were essential for safe operations. Maintenance teams dealt with aircraft flown hard by trainees. Crash and fire services had to respond quickly because training accidents were inevitable. The station’s contribution was therefore cumulative: more safe training sorties completed, more reliable diversion options, and fewer losses that would otherwise have reduced operational capacity.
- Primary wartime role: Midlands satellite/relief airfield supporting training throughput, dispersal and diversion capacity.
- Typical activity: circuits and landings practice, navigation/instrument training support, diversion landings and short-term holding/dispersal.
- Why it mattered: reduced congestion and accidents while preserving aircraft and aircrew resources.
After 1945, many such sites were reduced or returned to civilian use, leaving lighter physical traces than major bomber bases. RAF Leicester East remains historically significant as part of the Midlands’ supportive aviation infrastructure – the layer of capacity and redundancy that kept the RAF’s wider wartime machine running.
Even when an airfield’s name is not widely known, its contribution can be counted in avoided losses. Diversion capacity prevents fuel-exhaustion crashes; extra circuit space reduces mid-air risks; dispersal capacity reduces vulnerability. RAF Leicester East belongs to this category of ‘capacity multipliers’, where the benefit is distributed across the whole system rather than concentrated in one celebrated moment.