RAF Barkston Heath

RAF Barkston Heath lies near Grantham in Lincolnshire. The site was developed as an airfield in the late 1930s under RAF control and, from early in the Second World War, served principally as a flying-training establishment, hosting a succession of elementary and service flying training units associated with nearby RAF Cranwell and the RAF College.

In 1944 the station took on a far more prominent role when it was handed over to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 483 and assigned to IX Troop Carrier Command. The 61st Troop Carrier Group flew its Douglas C-47 Skytrains from here, and on the night of the Normandy invasion the group carried paratroopers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, to drop zones in France as part of the airborne assault. Troop-carrier units operating from Barkston Heath, latterly flying C-46 Commandos as well, went on to support later airborne operations, including the Rhine crossing of March 1945.

After the war the airfield returned to RAF training duties and has remained in military aviation use. Today it continues as an active flying-training and relief landing ground linked to Cranwell, with elementary training aircraft operating from the site, while part of the former wartime estate has been given over to industrial use.