RAF Fiskerton Airfield
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During the Second World War, RAF Lancasters flew from this airfield on Main Force operations. With a crew of seven, one hundred and seventeen of these Lancasters would never return.
Night after night in the cold black hostile skies above enemy occupied Europe, a deadly war was waged between enemy forces on the ground, roving enemy night fighter aircraft and our allied bomber crew's. Using complex state of the art electronic counter measures and human vigilance, remaining undetected was vital. Detection was almost always fatal and often, the first the bomber crew's would know of their detection was the sudden burst of gunfire which would rip their bomber apart.
Equally deadly, were the searchlights on the ground. These could trap an aircraft in their beams, illuminating them for the flak guns or
the night-fighters.
During the bombing campaign of the Second World War, the duties that the crew's of Bomber Command were expected to undertake was considered so dangerous, even by wartime standards that the bomber crew's were made up entirely of volunteers. Each man was obliged to complete thirty sorties before being screened from further operations. The life expectancy of a crew being just five operations.
Given that aircrew training took two years to complete and given that the crew's were operating the most sophisticated and reliable tool of war devised to date, namely the Lancaster bomber, highlights just how hazardous and difficult bombing operations were. The eventual loss calculations, which consisted of operational and training losses, serious physical and mental injury was finally calculated at 75% of every 100 who flew with Bomber Command in the war years 1939 to 1945.
This airfield was the wartime home of:
49 Squadron RAF
150 Squadron RAF
576 Squadron RAF
All the images and information on this website are the intellectual property of Martin Nichols and David Briggs, Anyone wishing to copy material from this website must contact the webmasters for permission via the e-mail on the contents page.
Much of the information on this website has been taken from eye witness accounts and records which were made over sixty-five years ago. Inevitably, errors do occur. Would anyone who finds any inaccuracies in the information on this website please contact the joint webmasters via the e-mail links on the Contents Page and the errors will be rectified.
Anyone visiting this website who has information or photographs of the airfield, either wartime or post-war, or former veterans who were stationed at Fiskerton and who would like to add this information or photographs to the site, please contact the webmasters. Credit to the sender will be given if desired. Information/photographs can either be posted or sent via e-mail. Posted material will be returned immediately upon scanning.