PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - RAF Finningley/Lindholme 1950s
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Old 11th Feb 2007, 14:43
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Riverboat
 
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I remember Wellingtons at Finningley, before Meteors. Then, after building the new runway, the Vulcans (101 squadron) arrived around Decmeber 1957. There were Valients at Finningley, when 18 Squadron arrived about a year later. There were never Victors. The No. 1 group Communications Flight was based at Finningley at this time, with three Ansons, a Chipmunk, Meteor and Canberra. 101 Squadron left and was replaced by 230 OCU. The Valients were all withdrawn in 1965.

There were also Wellingtons at Lindholme in the early 50s. I believe it was No. 5 ANS, and I remember Wellington T.10s, Ansons, and 3 Valettas, coded A, B, and C.

In November 1952 things changed quite dramatically, when Bomber Command Bombing School was formed at Lindholme, using up to (at least) 18 Lincolns and 8 Varsities. In addition there was an Anson C19 based there (VM387 in 1958), and also in 1958 the first Hastings arrived - TG503. I can give you a list of all the Lincolns and Varsities based at Lindholme in 1958 if want to PM me.

BCBS reduced in size quite dramatically in 1959 and 1960 and in the latter year there seemed to be only 4 Lincolns left, but this type was being replaced by Hastings. All the Lincolns had gone by 1961, with 8 Hastings, including the forerunner TG503, having replaced them.

For a while there was a Canberra mod centre at Lindholme - at least, quite a number of Canberras were observed landing at Lindholme for mods of some sort. One Saturday morning I saw 6 arrive - a most unusual event.

The Hastings and Varsities continued to the end.

What is interesting is that because the approach to Finningley's runway 20 passed overhead Lindholme, the Lindholme visual circuit, which was pretty active, was carried out at 800 ft. Now Lincolns were rather noisy aircraft, and they did a lot of nightflying circuits, which were over populated areas. No one complained about the noise! (The Hastings were a bit quieter, but would still be regarded as very noisy today, especially when flying at 800 ft.)

Hope that is what you want Gainsey.
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