RAF Cammeringham

RAF Cammeringham (Formerly RAF Ingham)
Wartime Nissen accommodation huts still standing at RAF Cammeringham in 2005
IATA: none ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Military airfield. Decommissioned and closed on 7 December 1946 Military Bomber airfield and a later training and aircrew holding station.
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force Polish Air Force
Location	Ingham, Lincolnshire
Elevation AMSL	200 ft / 61 m
Coordinates	53°20′28″N 00°33′18″W / 53.34111°N 0.55500°W / 53.34111; -0.55500Coordinates: 53°20′28″N 00°33′18″W / 53.34111°N 0.55500°W / 53.34111; -0.55500
Map
RAF Cammeringham Location in Lincolnshire
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m N/S 4,800 1,463 Grass NE/SW 4,800 1,463 Grass E/W 3,600 1,097 Grass
Operated as a satellite unit of RAF Hemswell

Royal Air Force Station Cammeringham or more simply RAF Cammeringham (formerly RAF Ingham) was a Royal Air Force station used by RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945 and the Polish Air Force until 1946. The airfield was located between the A15 (Ermine Street) and B1398 roads, 10.3 mi (16.6 km) north of the county town Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and due east of the village of Ingham.

Mainly used as an overflow airfield for nearby RAF Hemswell and later as a training establishment, its continued use was limited by damage to its grassed runways. The airfield closed in early December 1946.

The site had been considered as a potential stand-alone airfield as early as 1936 but building did not commence until 1940 when RAF Hemswell needed additional capacity during the expanding World War II bomber offensive. Initially no squadrons were based at the station and it was used exclusively by Hemswell as an overflow site.

Detailed surveys were undertaken in preparation for the building of the concrete runways then needed for heavy bombers, but it was decided that the contour gradients were unsuitable and the runways remained grass only. However between 1940 and 1942 a concrete perimeter track was constructed, together with three hangars (1 x B1 and 2 x T2 types) and a technical site. A total of 36 pan-type aircraft standings were constructed in two phases.

The station's WAAF female personnel were billeted in a separate area within the station in Quonset huts that provided accommodation and messing facilities. The huts still stood as late as 2007.

The first squadrons to be based at Ingham were No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron and No. 305 Polish Bomber Squadron, both flying Vickers Wellingtons, that arrived on 20 June 1941 from Hemswell which could no longer accommodate them. They were joined by No. 300 Polish Bomber Squadron also operating Wellingtons on 28 May 1942. No. 300 Squadron left for several months during early 1943 while undertaking Lancaster conversion training but No. 305 squadron remained at Ingham until August 1943.