SK9741 : Memorial to USAAF at RAF Barkston Heath
taken 5 years ago, near to Ancaster, Lincolnshire, England
Lincolnshire is known as Bomber County.
From the early days of the Royal Flying Corps there have been airfields or flying grounds in the county. There are 65 RAF Stations listed, including Administrative Headquarters and Bombing Ranges, not all were Operational Airfields.
Not all the Lincolnshire Stations were Bomber Command Stations, Fighter Command also had their share.
The intention of this SD is to bring together all the information in one place in no particular order or system, where it can be sorted and disseminated by the end user.
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Royal Air Force and USAAF Station memorials, where they exist, have been erected on, or close to the airfield, primarily to honour those who served and to perpetuate the memory of those who lost their life during the Second World War.
They differ in size, from large, striking memorials, sometimes with flagpoles completing the setting, often with depictions of aircraft, squadron badges and the basic layout of the airfield itself etched into the memorial, to minimalist, and even almost commercial, but nevertheless equally sincere in their remembrance and gratitude to those who served and to the sacrifices made in times of war.
In many instances, much of the Air Station will have been demolished in the intervening years, and returned to agriculture, or converted into an industrial or housing estate, eventually to fade from the landscape altogether, but hopefully will remain a little longer in the memory of those who encounter the memorials along the roads and pathways.
Most were operational from 1939, until just after end of the War in 1945. The bases were home to brave young men and women who served the allied forces flying fighters and bombers from the runways of the airfield, sometimes never to return.