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RAF Sturgate, in Lincolnshire near Gainsborough, is a good example of a wartime satellite and relief airfield designed to add resilience to the bomber and training network. The county’s skies were crowded with bombers, trainers and support aircraft, and the RAF needed additional runways to spread traffic, reduce accident risk, and provide safe diversion options when weather closed primary stations. Sturgate’s WWII role is therefore best understood through function – relief landing, training support and flexible use – rather than through one famous long-resident operational squadron.
Satellite stations in Lincolnshire often supported nearby Bomber Command fields and training units, providing additional circuit space for heavy aircraft training flights and a place to recover when a main station’s runways were blocked. They could also be used for dispersal – parking aircraft away from main bases to reduce vulnerability to attack – and for temporary detachments when a unit needed extra runway capacity. In practice, that meant a mixture of aircraft types passing through: heavy bombers on training sorties or diversions, light trainers and communications aircraft, and occasional specialist flights.
Because Sturgate’s use could be rotational, the ‘unit story’ is best presented as categories: training detachments linked to Operational Training Units and Heavy Conversion Units in the region; maintenance and servicing elements supporting the wider Lincolnshire system; and airfield defence and signals units keeping the station functional and protected. Aircraft associated with these activities in the region included the Vickers Wellington for OTU work, the Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster for conversion and continuation flying, and light aircraft used for communications and training administration.
What made Sturgate valuable was not glamour but reliability. The air war had a huge non-combat loss problem – accidents on take-off and landing, fuel exhaustion during diversions, and weather-related crashes. A well-run relief airfield reduced those losses by providing a safe runway and by spreading traffic across the network. In late-war Lincolnshire, that kind of friction reduction directly improved operational output: more aircraft survived to fly again, and more trained aircrew survived to join squadrons.
- Primary wartime role: Lincolnshire satellite/relief airfield supporting training and bomber networks.
- Typical units: OTU/HCU-linked detachments, servicing/maintenance support, airfield defence and signals elements.
- Typical aircraft seen in the support/training context: Wellington (OTU), Halifax/Lancaster (conversion/continuation), plus communications and trainer types.
RAF Sturgate’s WWII significance is a systems significance. It represents the ‘extra runway’ layer that kept Bomber Command’s training and operational machine moving in one of the most heavily used flying regions in the world.
For many aircraft and crews, the most important moment involving a relief airfield was not a dramatic operation but a safe landing after a difficult flight. In crowded Lincolnshire skies, that safety margin prevented avoidable loss and kept both aircraft and trained people available for the next day’s flying. That is the quiet strategic value of stations like Sturgate.
For many aircraft and crews, the most important moment involving a relief airfield was not a dramatic operation but a safe landing after a difficult flight. In crowded Lincolnshire skies, that safety margin prevented avoidable loss and kept both aircraft and trained people available for the next day’s flying. That is the quiet strategic value of stations like Sturgate.