RAF Digby [scopwick]

RAF Digby, near the village of Scopwick in Lincolnshire some twelve miles south-east of Lincoln, traces its origins to early 1918, when it began life as a training aerodrome in the closing months of the First World War. Reactivated and rebuilt during the inter-war expansion of the RAF, by 1937 it had become a fighter station within No. 12 Group of Fighter Command, a role it would hold throughout the Second World War.

Unlike its many bomber neighbours in “Bomber County”, Digby was a fighter airfield. A long succession of squadrons passed through it flying types such as the Gloster Gauntlet and Gladiator, the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire, and later the Bristol Blenheim. From 1940 onwards it became a notable home to Allied national units, hosting Polish, Belgian and Czechoslovak airmen and, in particular, a series of Royal Canadian Air Force fighter squadrons. The station took part in the air defence of Britain, supported operations in the run-up to D-Day, and was itself bombed during German raids in 1940–41.

Flying ended in the early 1950s, but Digby was never abandoned. The site remained in RAF hands and developed into a signals and intelligence-gathering establishment, a function it continues to perform today. Its wartime Sector Operations Room survives as a museum.