Meandering through the dunes on one of the many Nature Reserves along the Lincolnshire coast, it seems hard to believe that this area was so active during WW2. My walk today took me to Theddlethorpe, parking at Churchill Lane car park. RAF Theddlethorpe was opened around 1940 and was used by airmen, piloting Wellington bombers, to practise target shooting at drogues (a fabric sleeve trailed behind a plane)
This lookout post I came across, now roofless, gives an impression of just how confined the space was and how agile you had to be to crawl through the entrance tunnel. The RAF ceased to use this site around 1970 owing to the construction of the nearby gas terminal.
Iris Burgess was a woman barely past her teens, when she was posted to RAF Theddlethorpe as a young WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). I wonder how she felt, being so far from home? Was she excited by a new found freedom and independence or was she anxious and fearful of the advancing war in Europe? You can read Iris’s account of life at RAF Theddlethorpe here:
Comments