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RAF Folkingham
Airfield Code: FK USAAF Station: 484 Google Earth Co-ordinates: 52°51'34.34" N 00°26'45.22" W Runway: 01/19 & 07/25 = 4200ft x 150ft 13/31= 6000ft x 150ft Although surveyed and approved as suitable for the construction of a bomber airfield, The initial Royal Air Force use of the site began in 1940 when it was set up as a decoy for RAF Spitalgate. The intention was to make it look like a real airfield so that it would draw aerial attacks which might otherwise be made on active stations. As such it attracted the attention of the Luftwaffe on at least three occasions. The terrain of Folkingham, however, was not optimum for a large airfield. Not until early 1943 did construction start on the airfield, with it being built to the Class A airfield specification by the Air Ministry, the main feature of which was a set of three converging runways each containing a concrete runway for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at 60 degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. The 50 hardstands were all loop type connecting to an enclosing perimeter track, of a standard width of 50 feet. The ground support station was constructed largely of Nissen huts of various sizes. The support station was where the group and ground station commanders and squadron headquarters and orderly rooms were located. The technical site, connected to the ground station and airfield consisted of at two T2 type hangars and various organizational, component and field maintenance shops along with the crew chiefs and other personnel necessary to keep the aircraft airworthy and to quickly repair light and moderate battle damage. The Ammunition dump was located on the southeast side of the airfield, outside of the perimeter track surrounded by large dirt mounds and concrete storage pens. Various domestic accommodation sites were constructed dispersed away from the airfield, but within a mile or so of the technical support site, also using clusters of Maycrete or Nissen huts. The Huts were either connected, set up end-to-end or built singly and made of prefabricated corrugated iron with a door and two small windows at the front and back. They provided accommodation for 2189 personnel, including communal and a sick quarters. US personnel started to arrive in January 1944 to prepare for the 313th Troop Carrier Group scheduled to transfer from Trapani/Milo Airfield, Sicily. On 5th February it opened as a USAAF IX Troop Carrier Command station flying four squadrons of C-47s. The 313th TCG was part of the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing. The first of its squadrons, the 29th TCS, did not fly in until the 24th February. The 47th TCS followed on March 1st and the 48th and 49th TCSs on March 3rd and 5th respectively. At this time, the squadrons had an authorized strength of 18 C-47s, although during the spring and early summer this was increased to 24. During airborne operations, when large numbers of airborne parachutists were moved to the airfield, tents would be pitched on the interior grass regions of the airfield, or wherever space could be found to accommodate the airborne forces for the short time they would be bivouacked at the station prior to the operation. The work took most of the year, during which time the new station had been allocated to the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force Troop Carrier Command. Folkingham was retained by the USAAF until July 1945, although most personnel had departed by April. The base was then turned over to RAF Maintenance Command and little flying took place thereafter. RAF Technical training was carried out until 1946 and the station was closed in 1947. With the facility released from military control, the runway was used for development testing of the new BRM 16 cylinder 1.5 litre racing car which was presented before the press for the first time on 15th December 1949, at Folkingham airfield. A BRM engine test house and other facilities were later built there. RAF Folkingham later served as a post-war PGM-17 Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) base with 3 IRBM launchers under No.223 (SM) Squadron. With the selection of the site in late 1958, BRM was moved out to RAF North Witham. Construction began on three Thor launch pads, and once completed, No.223 reformed at Folkingham as a Thor strategic missile squadron on 1st December 1959. The Thor IRBM deployment in the United Kingdom was nothing more than an interim measure and was scheduled to terminate in November 1964. However it was actually terminated in 1963, when the USAF had deployed its first ICBM (Inter continental ballistic missile), the Atlas. At the same time, the RAF's V Force of Valiant, Victor and Vulcan bombers had reached a new peak of effectiveness with its own deployment of the Blue Steel stand off weapon, which equipped several squadrons, and the Thor squadrons were disbanded, with No.223 Squadron disbanding on 23rd August 1963. On the closure of the Thor site, BRM moved back and its later cars were tested at Folkingham, but only remained for a few years. In 1966 the testing track closed and the airfield was sold off to agricultural interests. Today little remains of Folkingham's runways and buildings, now used as vehicle compound of Nelson M Green & Sons Ltd. Little of Folkingham's later incarnations survives, although there are remnants of the airfield buried in nearby Temple Wood, they date from the site's many earlier incarnations. All that remains of Project Emily are three sites with a characteristic ground signature on the Folkingham side of the airfield. Aircraft & Squadrons
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