THE FIRST OF MANY

摘要

In 1942, the Friendly Invasion of England by the nascent United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was a trickle destined to become a torrent. Those aircrew, mechanics, and aircraft would need homes. Because airfield production was outrunning aircraft production at that moment in history, many airfields could be made available to the Americans almost overnight, and that story began in North Lincolnshire. In 1940, Air Ministry surveyors arrived looking for land suitable to build yet another airfield for the RAF's rapidly expanding Bomber Command. It was planned that Goxhill would become the most northerly Bomber airfield in Lincolnshire's "Bomber County". Construction began in October 1940, with the airfield comprising of three runways, two 1,100 yards long by 50 yards wide, the third runway would be longer at 1,600 yards. Contractors, John Laing S Son also built 25 dispersals for aircraft. However, with more airfields than aircraft, the RAF struggled to find ways to make RAF Goxhill useful and seven target-towing Lysanders were the first to arrive. Their stay was short lived and they returned to nearby Binbrook by November 10 and for a few months in May and June of 1942, Goxhill became a satellite station for nearby RAF Kirmington (now Humberside International Airport).