Unknown airfield sites from a 1946 list

netcompsys wrote:

Ludborough, just down the road from me, between Grimsby and Louth was the site of Q-type night bombing decoy for Binbrook, active from 1942

www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1465541

Kevin

The Heritage Booklet by Howard Heeley for Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire included this brief description of Ludborough

Ludborough
LOCATION / GRID REF:Sheet 113 SK280965
Major airfields throughout Lincolnshire were
normally allocated an emergency landing
ground. Some reports note Ludborough (located
close to the B1431) as being such a site for RAF
Binbrook; although it may have undertaken a
similar role for RAF North Coates.

At the time it was published I queried the background/source with Howard because I thought it had only been a decoy as described in Pastscape :-

Ludborough was a Q decoy site, Q85C

"A Second World War bombing decoy at Ludborough that was built to deflect enemy bombing from Royal Air Force Binbrook airfield. This was a 'Q-type' decoy, which displayed a series of lights to simulate an active airfield. It is referenced as being operational during 1942. The partial remains of a building, most likely a control building or air raid shelter, survives at the site with its entrance fronted by a blast wall"

and

"A Second World War 'Q-type' bombing decoy located at Ludborough (TF 284 960). It was constructed to deflect enemy night bombing from RAF Binbrook. It is referenced as being active on 12-AUG-1942."

He told me that his most useful source was "Airfields of Lincolnshire since 1912" , Blake Hodgson and (Bill) Taylor published in 1984

it has this on Ludborough


which also gives a source on TNA

I'd forgotten about that book, odd considering I bought a copy when it was first published!

I have included a portion of the location map from AIR 10/4038 showing the ELG. I did wonder what the source of those maps was as I doubt if they were produced just for that manual. I suspect each ELG had its own page at one point but the practice of destroying outdated or replacing updated pages means that we are lucky a 1942/3 version survived with the older pages.I understand the RAF Museum has a copy but I believe it more closely resembles the 1944 version which TNA have as AIR 10/4039.



I'll keep an eye on NCAP as Luftwaffe coverage may show up some if/when it covers that area. It does have some good aerials of the 'K' sites at Lenham and Lullingstone, including dummy aircraft.

Another frustration is that some unit ORBs record sorties to take aerial photographs of their ELG but they do not seem to have survived in the Appendices, or at least the ones I have viewed.

As luck would have it - this is a September 1940 view of the ELG and Decoy site. I can't identify the bits on the site so presume it was decoy related and the ELG was later, although the decoy may have been after this photo as well.

Evening Despatch - Monday 19 November 1945
Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

Maxstoke. Bickenhill and Catherine de Barnes were the sites of three Birmingham decoys.
They were really excellent.’’ one Maxstoke man told the Evening Despatch to-day.
The searchlights came on immediately the German aircraft arrived, but the fires were not lit until bombs fell comparatively nearby.

The nearest houses to this decoy site are some 400 yards away, and no damage was suffered.
At Bickenhilt, also the decoy was successful. The Germans made several attacks on it.
“It was very well done,” an N.F.S. man said, “and the secret was so well kept that even we were fooled at the start. The first time the fire was lit, we turned out to the blaze.”
Some idea of the success of the decoys throughout the country can gained from the fact that, by the end of the war. decoy airfields had attracted 443 raids against 434 on actual airfields.

Carnaby wrote:

There is no mention of Catherine de Barnes which is unsurprising as it's less than a mile south of Bickenhill and probably an error / duplicate name.

I don't know the area perhaps it was officially classed as part of Bickenhill and controlled or manned from there?

There are a lot of these "now it can be told" stories at the end of the war. Don't know if they were official announcements or relaxation of security and the local reporters talking to people in the area. There is often some valuable information in the reports.