RAF Fiskerton

RAF Fiskerton was a heavy bomber station of RAF Bomber Command, built during 1942 about five miles east of Lincoln, near the village of Fiskerton in Lincolnshire. It became operational at the start of 1943 and served until the closing weeks of the war, being placed on care and maintenance in December 1945.

The first occupants were the Avro Lancasters of No. 49 Squadron, which moved in from nearby Scampton in January 1943 and flew from the station while it sat within No. 5 Group. When No. 49 Squadron departed for Fulbeck in October 1944 the airfield passed to No. 1 Group, and No. 576 Squadron arrived shortly afterwards, also flying Lancasters until it disbanded in September 1945. No. 150 Squadron also passed briefly through the station during this period.

Fiskerton was one of only about fifteen airfields fitted with FIDO, the petrol-fed burner system that cleared fog from the runway to let bombers land in poor visibility. Crews based here took part in major operations of the bomber offensive, among them the Peenemünde raid against the German V-weapon programme, attacks on Berlin and Berchtesgaden, and the Operation Manna food drops over the occupied Netherlands.

After the war the site was returned largely to agriculture, though traces of the runways and technical buildings survived for decades, and the Royal Observer Corps used part of it as a headquarters between 1962 and 1992. A memorial commemorates the airmen of Nos. 49 and 576 Squadrons.