Crew of Short Stirling N3669 of 15 Squadron, chalking up their 62nd raid at Bourn.

RAF Bourn

History of RAF Bourn

AH sent this note in 2023:

My first boss at Lloyd’s of London was Don McClelland DFC. After two tours on bombers he joined 162 Sqn at Bourn in 1945 as a pilot. He flew the last bomber sortie of WW2 in Europe of Bomber Command . The raid was against the German port of Kiel. I visited the airfield which I understand will be a housing estate. I was able to drive onto the airfield.  Don died in the 1980s.

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RAF Bourn

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Bourn Airfield was constructed for Bomber Command in 1940 as a satellite airfield for Oakington. From 23rd July 1941 it was used by 101 Sqn Wellingtons for training and from February 1942 was fully operational. Next 15 Squadron were based here with Stirlings and then in 1943 97 Squadron with Lancasters. In 1944 105 and 162 Squadron Mosquitos used the airfield.

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MLH sent this note in 2026:

My Uncle, 1270197 Sgt Peter David Head RAF XV Squadron, and was Radio Operator and Air Gunner, flying a Stirling bomber. He was killed during what my father termed as ‘Bumps and Hops’ operations. Instead for the normal 7 man crew they had 4 passengers. All were killed when the aircraft failed to pull out of a steep turn out of the low cloud on the late morning of 29th October 1942. The plane crashed into the 40-Foot Drain, just south of Downham Market, Norfolk. The pilot was an extremely competent and well-respected SL Charles G Fisher, and his co-Pilot Sgt Walter Hood.  Peter David Head was buried at Marham Cemetery, Norfolk, in a collective grave 48-50. He was just 21yrs of Age. I understand from my father (Thomas Wm Gilbert Head Jnr, died 2001) that the incident and its victims are commemorated in the Parish Church of Downham Market, although when I went some years back, the church was locked!

The whole Dossier was extremely kindly researched by  Martyn R. Ford-Jones in 2021. The above is just an extract. I have also incorporated Peter’s story in a published family history (6 Volumes!) published also in 2021.

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Bourn Airfield
Area: former Bourn Airfield, between Cambourne and Caldecote
Grid/NGR: TL 3426 5915
Approx. lat/long: 52.21423, -0.03716
Oxford Archaeology East report PDF:
https://eprints.oxfordarchaeology.com/4711/1/Report%202256_LR.pdf
Local commentary:
https://cambridgedevelopmentarchaeology.co.uk/archaeology-in/cambourne-and-bourn-airfield

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10 September 1951

Valuable equipment worth £3,000 has been lost or stolen from Bourn Airfield, now derelict except for the watchman employed by the Air Ministry contractors at present working on the site, and a few homeless families squatting in disused huts. The equipment for aerodrome petrol installations was housed in two Nissen huts. But the huts had no doors on them. “We felt that with the watchman being on the site, doors were unnecessary”, said the contractors. The equipment must have been removed by lorry and might have been sold for scrap. — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

26 January 1954

Messrs Vicom Ltd appealed for the development of Bourn aerodrome as a factory for light engineering. They were incorporated in 1951 to manufacture electronic equipment for high frequency radio for use in military aircraft. Their current contracts were for the Canadian and United States Air Forces and were of great importance. County planners say there is a danger of labour being attracted from the land in an area where it was scarce but only four of their 110 employees had ever had any connection with agriculture and a high proportion of the new employment could be female labour. The land was some of the poorest, there was a great deal of concrete on the site and it would take three years to produce anything. Bourn was a picturesque village with building sites for 77 houses and was an ideal place for the centre of employment. — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

3 December 1954

A Vampire jet aircraft from RAF Oakington attempting to land on a disused runway at Bourn aerodrome overshot and crashed across the main Cambridge to St Neots Road. It landed in a field and burst into flames. The pilot managed to pull himself clear of the wreckage suffering from severe burns and was given first aid by Sister Joan Webb of the Medical Research Department of Bourn Pest Control. All that was recognisable of the wreckage was the tail assembly and jet engine propulsion unit. The pavement on the other side of the road was smashed and crumpled by the impact when the plane crashed. — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1954 12 03 c.

11 February 1956

A rent collector told the court he called at one hut at Bourn aerodrome and found the meter had been broken open and some cash taken; more cash was missing from other huts but at the hut occupied by the defendant’s mother, all was in order. A coalman said he climbed through the windows of empty huts and took money from the meters which he spent on chocolates and cigarettes. But Chesterton RDC should not have left the meters in disused huts unemptied. 56 02 11a — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

19 September 1961

Thirteen people travelling on a United Counties double-decker bus had remarkable escapes when it ploughed through a ditch and crashed into a copse after being in collision with two heavy lorries at the junction of the Bourn Airfield turn on the main Cambridge-Bedford road. A large section of the off-side of the bus was pushed in and the conductor thrown to the floor and covered in a pile of seats. One of the lorries, owned by Chivers of Histon, was completely swung round and overturned in the centre of the road. 61 09 19 — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

20 April 1976

Bank holiday bargain hunters brought traffic chaos to Bourn airfield market when queues four miles long built up on the A45. Shoppers started moving in early to buy everything from double glazing to garden gnomes. By noon thousands of people crowded the market ground. Getting away from the market was no easier. By lunchtime four lanes of traffic stretched back for three-quarters of a mile, attempting to get out of a single gateway. — Mike Petty, Bourn Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.