The Military Airfields of Britain, East Midlands by Ken Delve

The Military Airfields of Britain, East Midlands

Ken Delve Crowood Press

One of a series of books based on the author's popular series for Flypast magazine. The books are designed for the historian, enthusiast, tourist and anyone with an interest in their local area. This volume covers every military airfield within Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, from World War One to the present day and comprise: Brief history of the airfield, its construction and use, including decoy sites; comprehensive list of flying units with dates and aircraft types; list of HQ units based at the airfield; details of memorials; maps and plans for almost every airfield; location details; period photographs. This area is famous as one of the main base areas for Bomber Command in World War Two, fighting a six-year campaign, starting with Battles and Wellingtons and ending with the destructive power of hundreds of Lancasters.

Not forgetting this areas importance in World War One, as part of the Home Defence network and as a location for training airfields however it was with WW2 that the counties in this region saw a massive expansion in numbers of airfields, including American airbases and contributed both to offensive bomber operations and from the Battle of Britain onward, defensive day and night fighter ops. During the Cold War the region remained in the front-line with V-bomber bases and for a short period the Thor strategic missile system.