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RAF Goxhill Info Board

<< Back to Goxhill

Details:

Adjacent to the monument, next to the bench on the left.


Marker

A rectangular board printed in colors, inscribed in English text with a metal top. The info board details the history of RAF Goxhill.

Source of image: Imperial War Museum War Memorials Register

Monument Text:

Northern Lincolshire

Aviation Heritage

 

Inscription on the left side:

 

RAF units

at Goxhill:

TTF, 15 (P) AFU, 233 MU,

35 MU, 93 MU, 92 MU

 

Overseas units

at Goxhill:

1st FG, 52nd FG, 81st FG,

78th FG, 353rd FG, 356th FG,

358th FG, 496th FG

 

Opened: 26 Jun 1941

Closed: Dec 1953

 

1st column:

 

RAF Goxhill was the first British airfield to be taken over by the American Air Force after the RAF struggled to find a use for the site.

 

Construction work began in October 1940 and the airfield first opened in June 1941 as a 1 Group Bomber Command station. Although the site had been considered as a Royal Flying Corps Relief Landing Ground during World War One. it was never used.

 

Bomber Command's 1 Group Target Towing Flight (TTF) was the first unit to make use of the site, although its stay was only brief. The unit was formed at Goxhill in September 1941, flying the Westland Lysander, and moved to RAF Binbrook in November 1941. 

 

After 1 Group TTF departed, the station was transferred to 12 Group Fighter Command and was used to disperse Spitfires from RAF Kirton in Lindsey. Later the Airspeed Oxfords and Ansons from RAF Kirmington used the site for 'circuits and bumps' - a training exercise where aircraft would land, circle and take off from an airfield.

 

RAF Goxhill served no further use to Fighter Command and the site's future was to be with the United States of America Air force (USAAF).

 

 

What was Bomber Command?

 

With the threat of a second war looming the RAF was reorganised and split into four commands in 193 - Bomber Command, Coastal Command, Fighter Command and training Command.

 

Bomber Command was divided into six groups which were then split into smaller sub- groups. The structure was

 

Bomber Command - Groups - Base - Station - Squadron - Flight

 

 

Barrage Balloons

 

As the crow flies, Goxhill is less than three miles from Hull.

 

Hull suffered from heavy bombing during the war and one way to defend the city against low-flying aircraft was with large hydrogen-filled balloons tethered around its boundaries. By 1941 there were 80 balloons surrounding Hull, as well as six mobile balloons.

 

The balloons - called barrage balloons - either forced enemy aircraft to fly at a higher altitude or in a different direction, reducing their accuracy as they tried to attack. Sometimes the planes would fly into the steel wires holding up the balloons and crash.

 

Barrage balloons were used extensively by the British forces during both World Wars and worked well. A Balloon Command was even formed in 1938 to control the vast number of barrage balloons in place around British towns and cities.

 

It has been said many times but that the presence of so many barrage balloons around Hull was the reason for RAF Goxhill being unoccupied for so long - that the balloons blocked flight paths into the site for heavy planes of Bomber Command. However, the nearest balloon to Goxhill was a mile and half away at East Halton.

 

The story about the balloons was probably a bluff. It is likely that the RAF simply didn't have enough aircraft and personnel to operate the site, covering up this fact with the story about the balloons for security reasons. This shortage may also have been why nearby RAF Kirmington stood empty for almost a year before its first bombers arrived.

 

(-image here-)

A barrage balloon

 

2nd column:

 

The Americans are coming!

 

The American 8th Army Air Force arrived in Britain in 194. They needed somewhere to train and somewhere to adjust to the unfamiliar European conditions - suddenly RAF Goxhill had a use.

 

The first American planes arrived here in June 1942 - the twin-engined P-38 Lightning fighters of 71st Fighter Squadron (1st Fighter Group) with their distinctive 'twinboom' design.

 

The airfield known as Station F-345 and acted as a staging base. Units arrived at Goxhill direct from America and were trained and familiarised with European conditions before moving on to combat bases.

 

The 496th Fighter Training Group was the only American unit to be formed here at Goxhill. The group was under the command of Colonel Harry W. McGee and was divided into two squadrons. The 554 Sqn trained P-38 Lightning pilots for the 8th and 9th Air Forces while 555 Sqn trained pilots to use the P-51 Mustang. During their time at Goxhill the two squadrons posted 2434 trained pilots.

 

One American unit - the 52nd Fighter Group - flew the only operational fighter of WW2 from Goxhill. The fighter group flew 83 operational sorties across the North Sea.

 

(-image here-)

A P-51 Mustang about to Cross Chapelfield Road

 

(-image here-)

Colonel Harry McGee

 

(-image here-)

Two P-51 Mustangs take off with a P-38 lightning following

 

 

 

A welcome to remember

 

There was never a good time to be bombed by the Germans but six hours before the arrival of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and a ceremony to hand over Goxhill to the Americans was a particularly bad moment. 

 

RAF Goxhill had been made to look its best; honour guards from the RAF and USAAF had been brought in and Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal was on site, patiently awaiting the arrival of General Eisenhower. It was on this morning that the Luftwaffe decided to make its one and only attack on Goxhill, dropping two bombs - one on the runway and one near the control tower. The attack took place at 3am in the morning and Eisenhower was due to arrive at 9am. 

 

It wasn't all bad luck, though: the bombs did not explode. An RAF disposal team were told to hotfoot it across from RAF Digby to make the devices safe so that the Americans could use the runway. By the time they got here however, the bombs had disappeared. 

 

A two foot hole dominated the spot where the airfield's two largest runways met but there was no bomb to be seen - it had sunk into the soft clay and there was no hope of finding it in time. 

 

It was 1947 before the bomb saw the light of day again and Eisenhower landed safely, able to accept Goxhill on behalf of the USAAF. The ceremony passed without incident and it was nearly five years later when the bombs were finally recovered and made safe. 

 

Instead of being a brilliant strike by the Germans at a crucial moment, the attack is believed to have been down to luck. The German bomber crew probably had no idea about the disruption their bombs had caused or even where they had landed — they were only trying to get rid of the heavy devices before flying back home. 

 

The American Way

 

For a village that was wary of anyone who lived further away than Hull, the arrival of the Americans was a huge culture shock. 

 

The newcomers quickly settled in, though, and made friends with the locals. They held baseball games and made use of local train services to explore the area in their free time. The platforms at Goxhill and Thornton Abbey train stations were extended to accommodate the huge number of Americans visiting Grimsby or Hull via the Ferry terminal at New Holland. 

 

The American sense humour persisted at Goxhill, too. After being greeted with Nissen huts and usual selection of airfield accomodation, the Americans christened the sites with the names of elite British hotels, including the Dorchester, Ritz and Berkeley.

 

(-image here-)

The Americans at Goxhill

 

 

The Goxhill Memorial

On 26 May 1944 Second Lieutenant Lane Ferrara had just taken off in his P-38 when one of the engines caught fire, causing the plane to dive into the ground, killing the pilot instantly. Ferrara was one of 23 men killed during training accidents at Goxhill, and his plane was one of 53 aircraft lost. 

In 1983 a propeller blade from the wreck of Ferrara's plane salvaged by a group of local enthusiasts. It has since been included in a motional to all those who served from the airfield during World War Two, located on the Horsegate Field Road boundary of the site, near to the junction with Ruard Road.

(-image on the right-)

Pilot 2nd Lt. Ferrara’s P-38 Lightning

 

A Hollywood Connection?

There is a rumour that haunts Goxhill Airfield, but not of ghosts or ghouls. 

It is claimed by some that Clark Gable, the famous film star of the 1930s and 1940s, was stationed at Goxhill during the American occupation. 

In fact, it is doubtful that he had even heard of Goxhill. Instead, Gable was stationed at Polebrook, Northamptonshire where he served as a photographer and aerial gunner. 

Despite the fact that there is no proof — photographic or in records —of Gable setting foot anywhere near Goxhill, the rumour persists.

 

What can I see today?

Goxhill airfield remained remarkably intact thanks to the RAF's use of the site as a storage site for bombs after the war. The Home Office also used to site for storage from December 1953 when the site was deactivated and closed. In January 1962 parts of the airfield were sold off to private owners for agricultural use, the remainder being sold by the MOD in July 1977. 

 

The main J-type hangar is still standing, as well as the two T2 hangars and a number of smaller buildings. Sadly the control tower was dismantled in 2003 and shipped to America to be reassembled at the Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, VA. The runways and perimeter track were also taken up around this time, too. 

Commemorates:

Units:

1st Fighter Group

496th Fighter Training Group

52nd Fighter Group

554th Fighter Training Squadron

555th Fighter Training Squadron

71st Fighter Squadron

8th Air Force

9th Air Force

US Army Air Corps

Wars:

WWII