Скачать или смотреть RAF COLEBY GRANGE CONTROL TOWER AND FIRE STATION PART 1

..Was great too come across this RAF BASE by accident..hope you enjoy.Some of the best explores are by accident ...enjoyed the atmosphere here and good company with exploring with Kev...

.wikipedia info .... Royal Air Force Coleby Grange or more simply RAF Coleby Grange was a Royal Air Force station situated alongside the western edge of the A15 on open heathland between the villages of Coleby and Nocton Heath and lying 7.4 mi (11.9 km) due south of the county town Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.

Opened in 1939 and operated as a fighter and night fighter airfield during the Second World War, occupied at various times by UK, US, Canadian and Polish fighter squadrons, the station briefly switched to a training role post-war before being placed on a care and maintenance basis.

Reopened in 1959 as an RAF Bomber Command Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) launch facility and placed on a high DEFCON 2 launch alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the station was finally closed and decommissioned in 1963. The site has been returned to agricultural use and now has little evidence of its former use, other than several lengths of perimeter track and the original air traffic control tower.


The station was constructed during late 1938 and opened early in 1939 initially as a relief landing ground (RLG) for the training facility at RAF Cranwell although quite quickly. In early 1940, two squadrons No. 253 Squadron RAF and No. 264 Squadron RAF took up residence at Coleby Grange.[1]

The station was destined never to be upgraded with concrete or tarmac runways and throughout its operational life used three grass runways. Aircraft remained parked outdoors on permanent flight readiness and initially only a single Type T1 hangar was constructed for use during aircraft repairs. Much later one blister type hangar and seven extended over-blister hangars were added.[2]




A de Havilland Mosquito. This type was flown by several squadrons at Coleby Grange
In May 1941 the station was transferred to No. 12 Group RAF and severed its link with RAF Cranwell. Instead Coleby Grange became a satellite field of nearby RAF Digby and was occupied in turn by No. 402 Squadron RCAF, No. 409 Squadron RCAF, No. 410 Squadron RCAF and No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron[5]

In 1751 a 100 ft (30 m) high landmark and former inland lighthouse known as the Dunston Pillar had been erected less than a mile north of the station on Tower Road to aid travellers crossing the wild heathland south of Lincoln. As the tower was within the flying circuit of the new airfield 40 ft (12 m) was removed from the tower's height and its top-piece statue of King George III was removed to Lincoln Castle, where it remains today.[6]

Until 1943 RAF Coleby Grange formed only part of a ring of fighter stations around Lincoln but, when the German daylight offensive wound down, RAF Digby shifted to a non-flying radar calibration role, RAF Kirton in Lindsey re-roled as a training establishment and RAF Hibaldstow closed. For the remainder of the war Coleby Grange remained as the only local station still operating in the night fighter role across Lincolnshire.[7]

During the D-Day landings RAF Coleby Grange was used as a fighter station by the 425th Fighter Squadron US Army Air Force, flying Northrop P-61 Black Widows and P70 Havocs in support of the US 9th Armored Division.[8] The squadron was under the command of the US Ninth Air Force from its headquarters at St Vincents, a large mansion in the centre of Grantham.




The station was mothballed and placed on a care and maintenance basis from 1947 until 1958 when it was reactivated as an IRBM missile facility.

Cold War[edit]

British 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 Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Nuclear Missile launchers of No 97(Strategic Missile) Squadron RAF. Each missile with a range of 1,500 mi (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".[11]



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. Several Lincoln residents can remember the Coleby Grange missiles standing erect on their mobile launchers and ready to fire. 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.[13]