Ground Images
Gallery captions written by John Ward (President & Historian......49Squadron Association)

Fiskerton 15/16 Mar 1944: The air traffic control WAAF Cpl efficiently ’stacks’ her returning Lancs following their trip to Stuttgart. All will be aware that a mid-air collision has just happened at nearby Waddington. The squadron dispatched 18 aircraft on the raid and 17 would return. The control tower staff will continue their vigil long after T for Tare was due to return. Sadly their diligence will be in vain - P/O Waugh’s crew is not coming home, they perished some hours earlier, victims of a German night fighter. (Ken Gibson)

Fiskerton during the FIDO demonstration. The photo was taken on 3 Nov 1943, from 500ft looking in a south westerly direction, showing clearly the main runway threshold. To the left of the shot, above the Lancaster at dispersal, can be seen the concrete base for the not yet erected B1 hanger. The T2 hanger is clearly visible and to it’s right can be seen the watch office complex. Moving further up the photo on the left, Lancasters of A Flt at dispersal can just be seen. Fiskerton village is off to the left and in the top left distance in the direction of Washingborough can be seen the River Witham. At the bottom of the picture is the FIDO cross bar of flames that Clive Roantree described as ‘reflecting off the Perspex windshield so that it was impossible for the pilot to see out’. Such was the problem encountered by the Richardson crew when they tragically crashed on their approach during the night of 26/27 November 1943

P/O Tudor Jones (centre) and crew being interrogated following their successful trip to Stuttgart 20/21-2-44. “Stuttgart 04.02hrs, 22,500ft, 1st wave. 8/10ths cloud at beginning of bombing clearing later. Centre of 4 Wanganui flares, green and red stars in sights. On leaving, many fires burning. Route and trip good. No incidents, flak moderate, fighters nil. Landed 07.50hrs”

During the winter of 1944/45 at Fulbeck, 49 Squadron Air Bombers held a party for the squadron's armourers, photo and instrument sections. In this photograph it is difficult to put names to all those shown, but they include: LAC Starling; F/Sgt Read, F/Sgt Perfect; Cpl Tomlinson; F/Sgt Borman; F/O Goldsworthy RAAF; W/O Jenkins RAAF; F/O Stokoe; F/Sgt Westaway RAAF (K. Gibson)

An excellent shot of some of the ground staff at Fiskerton in the summer of 1943. Back row l to r. Arnold Hazelwood, Joe Steel, Bill Wooton, Rex Yates, Chas Allen, Derek Richmond, Fred Cheadle, Les Jarvis, Bill Hyland, ‘Pash’ Palmer. Front row l to r. Unknown, Harry Williams, Brandon, Charley Grossey, Ted Ousten, Jack Barnes, Bill Fox, Ted Paling.

A very nice photo taken at Fiskerton during the Battle of Berlin. The official caption states that it shows Station personnel looking at the night flash photos following the raid to Berlin 22/23 Nov 43. Our Historian has tried to assimilate the code letters with the a/c that participated that night bit to no avail. He is left wondering that perhaps it was not that night but another or the photo is a 'set up'.

The operations board for a Berlin raid dated 18/19 November 1943. The original caption tells us that all 19 crews returned safely from this raid and 12 of these pilots (and crews?) survived to complete a full tour. Sadly this snapshot was not repeated very often and is not representative of the true loss rate.

14/15th August 1941: Eighty-one Hampdens went after railway targets in the Brunswick region. The squadron launched 24 aircraft of which 2 returned immediately; the remainder continued, with 11 aircraft able to locate and bomb the primary objective despite low cloud and haze. All the others attacked alternative targets at Arnhem, Bremen, Saldstedt, Hannover, Minden and Lehrte.