RAF Oakington

History of RAF Oakington

RAF Oakington

1938

Construction of aerodrome began.

1940

A German JU 88 on a photographic reconnaissance flight was forced to land at Oakington. The base initially had Blenheims, followed by Wellingtons and then Stirlings.

Stirlings had very large wheels and consequently a long undercarriage that was often damaged by enemy fire or became faulty. Sometimes they landed and one wheel would collapse and the plane would slew off to the side of the runway. Three Stirlings finished up within 20 feet of 101 Longstanton Road. (p.35)(Memoirs of C T Warboys)

(War Torn Skies, Cambridgeshire, Julian Evan Hart)

1941

17th June Jack Overhill records in his diary:

We heard eight or nine terrific explosions in the night and heard today that a German bomber followed a Stirling bomber home and unloaded when Oakington aerodrome lit up to receive it in ….

31st August: a Vickers Wellington crashed in Rampton after failing to gain height on take-off. Two crew members were killed. There is a memorial in Rampton churchyard.

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1942

29th July Jack wrote:

Last night as we were going to bed after 11 o’clock the sky northwards was suddenly lit up with a bright crimson glow that repeatedly blazed and faded We wondered what it was …. Heard today this light was caused by a Stirling bomber crashing at Oakington. Don’t know whether it’s true or not; can’t believe all you hear nowadays; far from it…

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In 2026 JG contacted us and sent this account of his grandfather:

Guy’s Cambridgeshire service

My grandfather was William Guy Lockhart, usually known as Guy, born on 10 June 1916. By the time he reached Oakington he had served as a fighter pilot, escaped from occupied France, and returned to France on clandestine Lysander operations supporting the Resistance. He subsequently flew Mosquitos with the Pathfinders.

The original squadron records show that he was appointed to command the newly formed No. 692 Squadron at Graveley with effect from 1 January 1944. His appointment to No. 7 Squadron is dated 24 March 1944 in the 692 Squadron records. He therefore had only about five weeks as commanding officer at Oakington before his death, aged 27. These dates come from the contemporary records rather than a later family account: The National Archives, AIR 27/2148/5 and AIR 27/2216/1 for the January appointment, and AIR 27/2216/3–4 for the March transfer.

A particularly moving Oakington document

There is a signed letter from Guy, headed No. 7 Squadron, RAF Station Oakington, Cambridge, dated 1 April 1944, to Mrs J. H. Wilson. Her husband, Squadron Leader C. H. Wilson DFC, was missing after the Nuremberg operation of 30/31 March.

Guy combines sympathy with hope, while being quite clear that no further information has arrived. He explains that avoiding publicity is a general precaution to protect a missing airman’s chance of escape. Having escaped himself, he must have understood that possibility unusually well, although that is my interpretation rather than something he says in the letter. Less than a month later his own wife would be enduring the same uncertainty.

The scan and transcript are publicly available in the IBCC Digital Archive, in the Frank Tilden Fuller collection: Guy’s letter to Mrs Wilson, 1 April 1944. This seems an especially appropriate document for your Oakington account, showing the human responsibilities of command as well as flying operations. The archive supplies its own credit and reuse conditions.

The last weeks and final operation

We are comparing the squadron records with crew logbooks and later recollections. T. J. Jones’s contemporary logbook records flying with Guy on the Tergnier operation of 18/19 April 1944. Don Nelson later recalled a meal in the mess with Guy and George Ryle before the final raid; I am keeping that clearly attributed as a witness’s later recollection.

On the night of 27/28 April, Guy captained Lancaster JB676, identified in the loss research as MG-K, on the Friedrichshafen operation. The squadron’s April record names him as captain and reports the aircraft missing. All seven men died near Reichenbach in the Lahr district: Guy, John Johnson, John Lionel Martin, Leslie Dennis Goldingay, William Walter Bigoray, George Ryle and Frank Wells Shields. Friedrichshafen was the target, not the crash location.

One useful distinction for the station history is that No. 7 Squadron also sent a separate force to Aulnoye later that night. The monthly record reports all six of those aircraft returning; the loss was from the Friedrichshafen force. That helps place the Layton-Smith account alongside Guy’s without conflating their operations. The relevant April records are AIR 27/101/7–8.

Judy and Tanya

Guy married my grandmother Ruby Olivia Silvia Potter, known as Judy, in Colchester on 20 February 1939. They had already lost their young son, Sauvan, in March 1942. Their daughter Tanya, my mother, was born on 31 July 1943 and was not yet nine months old when Guy died.