RAF Hemswell
| RAF Hemswell | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hemswell Cliff, Lincolnshire in England | |||||||||||
Hangars and buildings still standing at Hemswell | |||||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||||
| Type | Royal Air Force station | ||||||||||
| Code | HL | ||||||||||
| Owner | Ministry of Defence | ||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Flying Corps Royal Air Force United States Air Force | ||||||||||
| Controlled by | RAF Bomber Command * No. 1 Group RAF * No. 5 Group RAF | ||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||
| Coordinates | 53°23′56″N 000°34′26″W / 53.39889°N 0.57389°W | ||||||||||
| Grid reference | SK940910 | ||||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||||
| Built | 1918 & 1935 | ||||||||||
| In use | 1918 - 1919 1936 - 1967 | ||||||||||
| Battles/wars | European theatre of World War II Cold War | ||||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||||
| Elevation | 55 metres (180 ft) AMSL | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Decommissioned and closed in 1967 Military Bomber airfield and a later Ballistic Missile base | |||||||||||
Royal Air Force Hemswell, or RAF Hemswell, is a former Royal Air Force station located 7.8 miles (12.6 km) east of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England.
Located close to the village of Hemswell in Lincolnshire, England the disestablished airfield is now in full use as a civilian industrial and retail trading estate, forming part of the newly created parish of Hemswell Cliff along with the station's married quarters and RAF-built primary school that are now in non-military ownership.
The airfield was used by RAF Bomber Command for 20 years between 1937 and 1957 and saw most of its operational life during the Second World War. It was used again by Bomber Command as a nuclear ballistic missile base during the Cold War and then closed to military use in 1967.
On 19 March 1940 RAF Hemswell-based Handley Page Hampdens of No. 61 Squadron RAF were the first Bomber Command aircraft to drop bombs on German soil during the Second World War. The target was the Hörnum seaplane base on the northern Germany coast.
RAF Hemswell was used as a substitute for RAF Scampton in all the ground-based filming of the 1954 war film The Dam Busters