Flying operations

Lancaster NG128 of 101 Sqn from Ludford Magna dropping a Cookie over Duisburg on 14 October 1944

The first operation was on the night of 21 June 1943, with a raid on Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, with the first of many Lancasters (ED650) from the base not to return home, crashing near Mönchengladbach.^[2] During the war a total of 113 Avro Lancasters from the base failed to return, the highest number from any single squadron.

No. 101 Squadron were the main providers of electronic jamming equipment for raids over Germany, using Monica from July 1943 in three of their Lancasters, then Airborne Cigar (ABC) later in 1943. ABC involved German-speaking operators to misguide Luftwaffe nightfighters by transmitting Merlin-engine noise on three relevant Luftwaffe communication radio frequencies simultaneously over a distance of 50 miles. It was first used on the night of 7 October 1943 over Stuttgart in a raid with 343 Lancasters.

In the autumn of 1944, 101 Squadron was the first in the RAF to use the Village Inn Automatic Gun-Laying Turret. From October 1944 No. 100 Group RAF, stationed in Norfolk, took over most of the electronic jamming role. On 4 March 1945 it suffered its first attack from enemy bombers.

On 10 February 1945, 101 Squadron took delivery of an ABC-equipped Avro Lancaster PA237. Less than two weeks later, on the evening of 23 February 1945, the aircraft was one of 368 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitoes to take part in a raid on Pforzheim in Germany, home to watchmaking and jewellery trades whose precision skills were thought to be contributing to the Nazi war effort. ABC-equipped Lancasters had distinctively large aerials so were key targets of Luftwaffe crews as a result. PA237 was one of 12 Lancasters shot down during the raid; the young crew of 7 are buried at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Durnbach, near Bad Tölz, south of Munich.

Fog dispersal system

Ludford Magna was one of a small number of RAF stations equipped with an early experimental Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) system. The station was provided with seven large fuel tanks, which pumped petrol into two large pipes running up either side one of their runways. Once the open flame burners along the length of the main runway were ignited the intense rising heat would lift and disperse the fog leaving a visually clear and illuminated runway.

Not all RAF stations were FIDO equipped and when dense fog affected the county it was not unknown for aircraft from several stations to be diverted to RAF Ludford Magna for a safe landing, returning to their home stations when the foggy weather cleared. Volunteer observers at the surrounding Royal Observer Corps posts were specially trained and provided with coloured rocket flares (code named Granite) to guide any aircraft lost in thick fog towards the limited number of FIDO equipped stations.

The only other airfields in Lincolnshire fitted with FIDO systems were RAF Fiskerton, RAF Metheringham and RAF Sturgate and there were only 15 FIDO stations in the UK, mostly on the east coast.

Post-war use

After the war some of the station's buildings were used to house 800 Polish refugees between 1948 and 1956.^[3]

Cold War

PGM-17 Thor missile

In January 1956 RAF Hemswell just north of Lincoln was established as an RAF Bomber Command missile unit, maintaining and operating nine mobile mounted PGM-17 Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Nuclear Missile launchers of No. 97(Strategic Missile) Squadron RAF. Each missile with a range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) was tipped with a 1.44 megaton nuclear warhead, jointly controlled by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force under the so-called "dual-key arrangements".^[4]

In 1959 RAF Hemswell became the headquarters for the "No. 5 (Lincolnshire) Missile Dispersal Sites" located at RAF Bardney, RAF Caistor, RAF Coleby Grange and RAF Ludford Magna. The missiles at Ludford Magna were maintained and operated by No. 104 Squadron RAF.^[5]

The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the entire UK based Thor missile force to maximum strategic alert and readiness for a ten-day period during October and November 1962. On 26 October 1962 the NATO alert level was raised to DEFCON 2 and the missiles were made ready for launching, on a phased-hold leaving the missiles eight minutes from launch in the vertical unfuelled condition or two minutes from launch in the fuelled position. Local residents can remember the Ludford Magna missiles stood erect and ready to fire on their mobile launchers. Politically the following day came to be referred to as "Black Saturday" and was very tense until a negotiated stand-down by both sides was reached.^[6]

Former Group Captain George Aylett revealed that a potential disaster occurred on 7 December 1960 at RAF Ludford Magna. The RAF technicians fuelling the missile allowed its liquid oxygen tank to empty on to the launch pad. The leak could have caused a major fire leading to detonation of the rocket's fuel. "It could have created a terrible disaster," Group Captain Aylett said. A specialist on nuclear weapon accidents at Bradford University said that the destruction of the warhead would have contaminated between 100 and 300 square miles (260 and 780 km²).^[7]

Decommissioning

The brick built accommodation buildings were sold in a public auction on 22 July 1964. On 19 October 1965, the remaining 505 acres (204 ha) were sold to local farmers and some temporary buildings were demolished while others have fallen into disrepair or have been adapted for other uses. Parts of the runway perimeter and the three Thor missile launchpads still remain, as do most of the accommodation buildings north of the village. In 1978 a war memorial was erected in the village.

Airfield protection squadrons

• No. 2706 Squadron RAF Regiment June 1943 - November 1943
• No. 2702 Squadron RAF Regiment November 1943 - October 1945