South Carlton
SOUTH CARLTON: Military aerodrome
Note: The first picture was obtained from Google Earth ©. The second and third from my Google Earth © derived database.
Military users: RFC/RAF (Royal Flying Corps / Royal Air Force)
Training Squadron Station and Training Depot Station
No.23 Training Wing
Aircraft Repair Station
96 Sqdn (Sopwith Dolphins & Sopwith Snipes)
43 Aero Squadron U.S. Air Service * (Airco DH.4s)
*Note: Also known as the Air Service, U.S. Army and more simply as the Air Service. The U.S. Army Air Service, it seems, did not come into existence until 1920.
Location: On Cliffe Farm? E of the B1398, W of the A15, E of South Carlton village and NNW of Burton village. Roughly 2.5nm NNW of Lincoln city centre
Period of operation: 1916 to 1920
Site area: 198 acres 914 x 914
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY (Including a major revelation)
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for investigating this location in 2024 to see what else might now be available. This gallery can be divided into two equally important parts. Firstly, the WW1 military period, lasting it seems until 1920. Then the major revelation, (and slightly overlapping period), when SOUTH CARLTON was nominated as a staging post for a civilian airline route structure linking London and points north up to central Scotland.
THE WW1 PERIOD
Photo One is of a Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8, A3754, of 69 Squadron. This example being built by Siddeley-Deasy, probably at their Coventry factory? Picture from Flickr. The aerial photo is from the Lincoln Library Service.
Caption One and Photo Two are from Airmen of WW1. Caption Two and Photo Three were published in the Lincolnshire Echo on the 22nd April 1993. Photo Two is great proof, that, even in the military, giving aircraft individual names by their crews had evidentally become common practice during WW1. Photo Three is a good reminder that, especially in an Air Force, to keep just one aircraft flying requires a huge amount of people serving a multitude of duties on the ground. Especially in administration.
It is not perhaps generally recognised that, in the UK for example, without the dedicated services of the likes of H M Stationary Office, no military service can even start to function, let alone proceed to fight a war. Even today, including light aircraft, it is a well respected principal that no aircraft can possibly become airborne until the weight of the required documentation equals the weight of the aircraft.
We all love proof of a "wizard prang" do we not? Photo Four is a great example. We have no idea about the circumstances, possibly engine failure on take off? Photo from Airmen of WW1. I think this is a Vickers F.B.5 'Gunbus'? The article about the record flight was published in the Grantham Journal on the 13th September 1919.
A NEW DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH CARLTON - as a civil airport?
I will happily admit, until Mike Holder had found this proof, that I had no idea whatsoever that such a scheme had been planned by the Air Ministry during 1919.
Following on from WW1, the emphasis on civil air travel was mainly focused on establishing regular services into western Europe, with a great deal of effort expended on pioneering routes across and to the far ends of the British Empire. It would be around another decade and a half, into the 1930s, before an established regional airline system took place. In between a large variety of companies were operating semi-scheduled routes, mostly on a seasonal basis.
EXTRA INFORMATION
The short article was published in the Lincolnshire Echo on the 27th May 1919.
This article in four parts was published in the Lincoln Leader and County Advertiser on the 3rd May 1919.
IN A DIRE STATE OF AFFAIRS
In 1929, Sir Alan Cobham, in those days arguably the most famous of British pioneering airmen, took it upon himself to undertake a mostly solo tour of mainland Britain - his Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. Lasting from May from to October, the plan was to visit 107 towns and cities to exhort the local authorities to start constructing aerodromes/airports. This tour certainly helped a great deal.
NOTES: Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide' has found some very interesting information. It appears that the No.23 Training Wing had the following combination of aircraft, ranging from basic trainers to front line fighters, including types used at the start of WW1: Airco DH6s, Avro 503s and 504s, Farman Shorthorns, Nieuport 20s, Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2s and RE.8s, plus Sopwith Camels and Pups.
He also discovered this astonishing information from the memoirs of Lt Col Louis Strange, who had commanded No.23 Training Wing here, in his book Recollections of an Airman. "Work in a Training Wing was no joke. The write-off of one machine for every 140 flying hours meant the loss of something between thirty and forty machines a month, in addition to some thirty or forty minor crashes. In May of 1918 for instance, we had sixteen fatal casualties in 23rd Wing."
As I have remarked rather cynically elsewhere in this 'Guide', I don't understand why the RFC/RAF even bothered sending pilots and crews abroad to fight the Germans. They were quite capable of killing enough without any outside assistance!
This said, on a much more serious note, I think it is a disgrace in this country that a decent memorial has not been erected in memory of all airmen killed in training.
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