RAF Lissett
England — County: Yorkshire
About
RAF Lissett opened in February 1943 a few miles inland from Bridlington, a No. 4 Group bomber station whose entire wartime story belongs to one unit, No. 158 Squadron. Flying Handley Page Halifaxes from Lissett until August 1945, the squadron mounted around 250 operations and suffered terribly: 144 aircraft were lost and 851 of its airmen were killed. Among its Halifaxes was LV907 “Friday the 13th”, which defied its unlucky name to complete 128 operations — one of the most famous individual bombers in the RAF.
The airfield closed in 1947 and the land returned to farming. Since 2008 a wind farm has stood on the site, and at its edge is one of the most affecting of all bomber memorials: a row of seven life-size steel silhouettes of a Halifax crew walking out to their aircraft, dedicated to the 851 men of No. 158 Squadron who did not return.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust — Lissett and Wikipedia: RAF Lissett. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.
Photographs
ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_building_at_former_RAF_Lissett_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6134325.jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Royal Air Force official photographer / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pickard_Hope_Johnson_CH_010252_1.jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halifax_nose_art_Friday_the_13th_IWM_CH_14589.jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Lissett_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6134447.jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Lissett_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6134440.jpgView source & full licence →Home to
- No. 158 Squadron — 4 Group
People connected to this base
17 persons cross-referenced to this airfield — through a posting here, a squadron based here, or aircrew who flew from it.
| Name | Rank | Connection | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bickford, Douglas Fitzgerald | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Bray, Kenneth Arthur | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Brice, Albert | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Craven, Louis James | Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Gill, Robert Henry James | Air Gunner | Posted here — 158 | ? – ? |
| Harvey, Richard George Arnold | Flying Officer | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Hughes, Stephen | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Ingram, Lawrence Alexander | Flight Lieutenant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Jones, Samuel Davis | Squadron Leader | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Killigrew, Stanley | Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Macleod, Eric Ronald Fergus | Warrant Officer | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Moore, Ernest Roy | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Munnery, Norman George Peter | Flying Officer | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Nicholson, James Arthur | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Paxman, Leonard Gower | Flight Sergeant | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Shanahan, Anthony | Flying Officer | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |
| Surridge, Arthur Edmund | Flying Officer | Aircrew (squadron based here) | — |