RAF Leicester East
About
RAF Leicester East was built at Stoughton on the south-east edge of Leicester in 1943 as a transport and airborne-forces station. Short Stirlings of Nos. 190, 196 and 620 Squadrons flew from it, towing gliders and dropping paratroops, and a transport operational training unit flew Douglas Dakotas; the airfield also worked alongside the American 82nd Airborne Division, whose troops General Eisenhower reviewed there in August 1944. RAF flying ended in 1947, and the site continues today as Leicester Airport, home to the Leicestershire Aero Club.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Leicester East — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Leicester East — 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
ⓘ licence & credit
Harvey Milligan / CC0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Leicester.East.jpgView source & full licence →No people are cross-referenced to this airfield yet. Links appear as squadron postings, crews and service records are added.