RAF Polebrook

52.4646, -0.3852 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Polebrook, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, opened in 1941 and was handed to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 110. It was the home of the 351st Bombardment Group, whose Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses flew more than three hundred missions at heavy cost. The film star Clark Gable was stationed there in 1943, making a gunnery recruiting film and flying several missions as an observer. The Americans left after the war, and the airfield closed; the land has returned to the surrounding estate, with a memorial and a surviving hangar.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Polebrook — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Polebrook — 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

B-17F preparing to take off from RAF Polebrook.
ⓘ licence & creditUSAAF / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plb-ca1.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial Photograph of RAF Polebrook - August, 1948 Source: Royal Ordnance Survey
ⓘ licence & creditThe original uploader was Bwmoll3 at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plb-1048.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. The crew of Boeing Fortress Mark I, 'WP-G' of No. 90 Squadron RAF, climb out of their aircraft at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, after a daylight attack on the German battlecruiser GNEISENAU docked at Brest, France, which they bombed from 30,000 feet. The crews of the three Fortresses involved found that the Sperry Model 'O' bombsight, with which the Fortresses were equipped, was too inaccurate at that height, and that the Wright Cyclone engines had difficulty in maintaining such an altitude.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Mr) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_Fortress_Mk.I_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1941._CH3121.jpgView source & full licence →
Boeing B-17G-95-BO Fortress 43-38846, 351st Bombardment Group
ⓘ licence & creditUnited States Army Air Force / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_B-17G-95-BO_Fortress_43-38846-351st_BG.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditMichael Trolove / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airfield_defence_structure_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2743563.jpgView source & full licence →

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