RAF Mepal

England — County: Cambridgeshire

52.3956, 0.1197 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Mepal opened in Cambridgeshire in 1943 as a Bomber Command station in No. 3 Group, built as a satellite of nearby Waterbeach. It was home throughout to No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, which flew Short Stirlings and then Avro Lancasters on more than 1,700 bombing and minelaying sorties, losing over seventy aircraft. After the war the airfield gained a Cold War role as a base for Thor ballistic missiles between 1959 and 1963. Little now survives; the site is occupied by a business park, and a memorial marks the entrance.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Mepal — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Mepal — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Ground crews refuelling and bombing up an Avro Lancaster of No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF at Mepal, Cambridgeshire, for a night raid on Krefeld, Germany. The bomb load consists of a 4,000-lb HC 'cookie' and mixed 1,000-lb and 500-lb MC bombs.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Miller (Flt Lt) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avro_Lancaster_-_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH14680.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Bomber Command Mechanics working on the port-outer Merlin engine of a No 75 (New Zealand) Squadron Lancaster at Mepal, Cambridgeshire, 9 February 1945.
ⓘ licence & creditMiller (F/O), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avro_Lancaster_-_Mepal_-_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Bomber_Command_CH14681.jpgView source & full licence →

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