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RAF Donna Nook
Airfield Code: N/A Google Earth Co-ordinates: 53° 28'20.75"N 0° 9'11.45"E Runways: N/A Initially Donna Nook was used as a bombing range and relief landing ground for squadrons at the Armament Practice Camp at RAF North Coates from 1927. The bombing range included 7 miles of foreshore south of Donna Nook Beacon and out to sea to a range of 8000 yards. Large proportions of this were exposed sand and mud flats at low tide and used for bombing and gunnery targets. Practice bombing was conducted from altitudes of up to 14,000 ft. There were 5 quadrant towers along the shoreline, used to record fall of shot and bombing scores for instant relay back to RAF North Coates Fitties for the returning aircraft. Later Donna Nook functioned as a decoy airfield for RAF North Coates, populated with dummy Blenheim's. Overcrowding at nearby RAF North Coates later led to the site being transferred to RAF Coastal Command to provide an overspill runway. RAF Donna Nook subsequently became home to No.206 Squadron from August 1941 - July 1942. Donna Nook closed in 1945 but reopened as a NATO bombing range and is still in regular use. It had also served as a prisoner of war camp. It is now known as the Donna Nook/East Coast bombing range. The area at Donna Nook just north of North Somercotes is also a nature reserve with a large seal habitat in the early winter maintained by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. It is the only National Nature Reserve in the UK on MOD land, and was opened on July 18th 2002, by Air Commodore Nigel Williams. A few buildings and a section of perimeter track/runway are all that survive of the former RAF Donna Nook. The name lives on in the "new" RAF Donna Nook which uses the adjacent sand flats as a NATO air weapons range. Aircraft & Squadrons
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