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RAF Strubby | ||||||
Home > RAF Bases Alma Park Updated: 12 Oct 13 |
Opened: Apr 1944 Closed: Sep 1977 (still an active glider base) Airfield code :: NY > SB ICAO Code :: EGCG Airfield call sign :: FRUITPICK Squadrons based here: 280 Sqn :: May 1944 - 6 Sep 1944 144 Sqn :: Jul 1944 - Sep 1944 404 Sqn RCAF :: 1 Jul 1944 - Sep 1944 280 Sqn :: May 1944 - 6 Sep 1944 619 Sqn :: autumn 1944 - Jun 1945 227 Sqn :: summer 1945 5 Group Anti-Aircraft School :: RAF Strubby was the most easterly of Lincolnshire's airfields but was already surplus to Bomber Command requirements when it opened in Apr 1944. It was therefore initially used by Coastal Command which deployed 144 Sqn and 404 Sqn RCAF - operating the Beaufighter - to RAF Strubby on anti-surface vessel missions. In the autumn on 1944, when the reorganisation of Bomber Command groups moved RAF Scampton, RAF Fiskerton and RAF Dunholme Lodge to 1 Group, and North Coates could attack enemy shipping off the Dutch coast on its own, RAF Strubby Strike Wing dispersed and the Station was occupied by 619 Sqn from RAF Dunholme Lodge. 227 Sqn partly reformed here the following month before moving to RAF Balderton, returning in Apr 1945 for its final operations of the war. After VJ Day RAF Strubby came under the RAF Flying College at RAF Manby, remaining in this role up to closure in 1972. Coastal Command opened a station at Strubby in 1944 for air-sea rescue aircraft. It soon became a more offensive base when a Beaufighter Strike Wing was added. The station transferred to Bomber Command when North Coates became able to handle the enemy shipping off the coast of Holland on its own. Mr Vic Croft recollects being a National Service entrant LAC in the DF Truck at Strubby, serving on 12 GCA Unit in 1949. This was at the time when 2 Sqn flew in from the Berlin Airlift.
During the 1950s Strubby also served as the domestic site for RAF Skendleby GCI (E) site. Brian Reece Bevan served at Strubby in 1957 as an Air Radar fitter, working on Hunter Mk6 and Canberra B6. He recalls there was also a squadron of NF14 s who were part of Strategic Air Command. There were also 2 Canberras B6 that broke the Record for London to Tokio via the North Pole. They were known as Aries 5. During his time, Brian was posted on an attachment to Air Task Group Antler at RAAF Ediburgh Field and Maralinga for Atomic trials with a Valient Squadron. Conoco / ConocoPhillips used RAF Strubby as a helicopter base from which to ferry equipment and workers to the southern North Sea oil and gas rigs. Much of the remainder of RAF Strubby had disappeared in reclamation work in the 1980s with the runways being ripped up for hardcore. Conoco moved flying operations to Humberside International Airport at RAF Kirmington in the mid 1990s. The long-surviving hangars here have been pressed into service for EU Common Agricultural Policy intervention stores for Lincolnshire's contribution to the grain mountain. RAF Strubby is active once more as a glider airfield. Strubby Gliding Club has operated from the site since 1978 and changed its name to the Lincolnshire Gliding Club in the 1990s :: click here. Woodthorpe Aquatics also retain a Hangar 1 on the airfield for their pet and fish business. The airfield is also home to Woodthorpe Kart Club which holds races every month and occupies a large section of the field and buildings. |
RAF Strubby map on Multimap.com Buy an aerial photo of RAF Strubby on GetMapping.com RAF Strubby on ControlTowers.co.uk RAF Strubby memories on the Wartime Memories Project Aviation
Heritage Lincolnshire
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Heritage Lincolnshire
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