RAF Cammeringham/ingham

RAF Ingham was a grass airfield in Lincolnshire, around ten miles north of Lincoln, that opened in May 1942 after construction began the previous year. Operating within No. 1 Group of Bomber Command as a satellite of nearby RAF Hemswell, it became closely associated with the Polish airmen who flew under RAF command. In November 1944 it was renamed RAF Cammeringham, partly to avoid confusion with another Ingham elsewhere in eastern England.

The station’s defining role was as a home for Polish bomber units. No. 300 (Mazowiecki) Squadron was based here from 1942, flying Vickers Wellingtons and later moving on to the Avro Lancaster, and other Polish squadrons including 301 and 305 also passed through. Crews flew night operations over occupied Europe and suffered severe losses; the strain on the Polish squadrons during 1943 was considerable. As Ingham remained a grass field while concrete runways became standard elsewhere, the airfield was increasingly relegated to training, target-towing and bomber-defence flights.

Flying largely ceased by early 1945 when the deteriorating field was placed under care and maintenance, and the station finally closed in December 1946. The land returned to agriculture, though several structures survived. The former mess buildings were later developed into the RAF Ingham Heritage Centre, which preserves the memory of the Polish aircrew who served here.