RAF Hemswell

RAF Hemswell stands on the high ground of the Lincolnshire Cliff some miles east of Gainsborough, on a site first used as the First World War landing ground of Harpswell and rebuilt as a permanent bomber station that reopened in 1937. As a Bomber Command airfield — first in No. 5 Group and from 1941 in No. 1 Group — it sent its Handley Page Hampdens against Germany from the earliest days of the war, and one of its squadrons claimed the distinction of being among the first Bomber Command aircraft to drop bombs on German soil in March 1940. From 1941 it became one of the principal homes of the Polish bomber squadrons in the RAF, flying Vickers Wellingtons, and later operated Avro Lancasters and Lincolns. More than a hundred of its aircraft were lost on operations. After the war Hemswell featured in the filming of “The Dam Busters” and, in the Cold War, hosted Thor nuclear missiles before closing to the RAF in 1967. Most of its buildings survive, the site now given over to an industrial estate, antiques centre and Sunday market.