RAF Elsham Wolds

RAF Elsham Wolds occupied a windswept ridge in north Lincolnshire and had already served as an airfield in the First World War before it reopened in July 1941 as a bomber station in No. 1 Group. Its mainstay throughout the war was No. 103 Squadron, which moved up through Wellingtons and Halifaxes to the Avro Lancaster; in November 1943 a second Lancaster unit, No. 576 Squadron, was formed there, remaining for about a year before moving on to Fiskerton.

No. 103 Squadron flew more sorties than any other squadron in No. 1 Group, and paid for it with the group’s heaviest losses — close to 250 aircraft were lost from the station over the course of the war. Elsham Wolds was also home to one of Bomber Command’s most famous individual aircraft, Lancaster ED888 “Mike Squared”, which completed around 140 operations, more than any other Lancaster.

The station’s flying days ended soon after the war; it briefly housed a glider conversion unit and then displaced persons before closing in 1947. The site has largely returned to farmland and an industrial estate, and the A15 road now runs across it.