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 Wigsley in Nottinghamshire was a satellite station that played a very specific and often overlooked part in the wartime air system: conversion and advanced training for bomber crews. Built in 1941-42 and brought into use in February 1942, Wigsley was controlled by RAF Bomber Command, notably under No. 5 Group, and later associated with heavy conversion and training organisations. Its physical form reflected its purpose: concrete runways and dispersals built to handle large numbers of aircraft movements reliably, even though the station was not primarily known for launching headline raids.
One of Wigsley’s early operational associations came in the spring of 1942 when No. 455 Squadron RAAF operated Handley Page Hampden bombers from the airfield between 8 February and 28 April 1942. The Hampden was a twin-engined bomber from the early-war period, and its presence at Wigsley ties the station into the transitional phase when Bomber Command was shifting towards newer heavy aircraft while still employing earlier types for specific tasks and training requirements.
Wigsley’s most significant wartime role, however, centred on conversion. In June 1942, No. 1654 Conversion Unit arrived, later becoming No. 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) from October 1942 and remaining until September 1945. HCUs were vital links in the training chain: they took crews who had formed on Operational Training Units – often on Wellingtons or other twins – and converted them onto heavy bombers, teaching the handling, procedures and emergency drills needed for large four-engined aircraft. Conversion flying included circuits, asymmetric engine practice, cross-country navigation, formation work, and simulated operational profiles, all carried out until crews were deemed ready for a front-line squadron.
Wigsley also hosted conversion flights such as No. 50 and No. 83 Conversion Flights (recorded in August 1942), reinforcing its identity as a place where crews were being prepared for heavier, more demanding operational types. The station’s tempo would have been dominated by repetitive training sorties rather than long combat missions, but the pressure and risk were real. Heavy conversion training involved inexperienced crews learning complex aircraft behaviour, often at night and in poor weather, and accidents were an accepted, tragic by-product of the urgent wartime need to generate operational crews.
Because it was a satellite and training base, Wigsley’s importance lies in what it enabled elsewhere. Every operational Lancaster or Halifax crew had to pass through conversion and work up to a standard before joining a bomber squadron. Stations like Wigsley acted as the ‘final factory floor’ before crews entered combat. For visitors, the story is therefore about preparation: the months of flying that turned a collection of trained individuals into a functioning bomber crew, confident in a heavy aircraft, able to operate safely and effectively in the extreme conditions of the night war over Europe.
At its peak, Wigsley’s dispersals and peri-track would have been crowded with training aircraft waiting their turn, while instructors drilled crews on engine-out procedures, navigation discipline and formation handling. For many airmen, Wigsley was the last stepping stone before an operational squadron – where confidence was built, and weaknesses exposed, before the stakes became lethal.