Winterton
WINTERTON: Military Landing Ground (also known as ROXBY)
Military users: RFC/RAF (Royal Flying Corps / Royal Air Force)
33 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 & F.E.2 types. Later the Bristol F2B Fighter and lastly the night fighter version of the Avro 504K)
Location: Probably on East Field Farm? About 1nm NE of Winterton, about 2nm NNE to NE of Roxby and roughly 6.5nm NNE of Scunthorpe town centre
Period of operation: 1916 to 1919
Site area: 55 acres 549 x 366
NOTE: The map is only an approximate location. If anybody can define the location further it will be much appreciated.
It appears that despite a few interception sorties, in the three years that 33 Squadron used this aerodrom.e, and others in the region, they failed to shoot down a single 'Zeppelin' airship. 'Zeppelin' being the generic term applied to any German airship.
I suppose it is difficult today to appreciate just how much fear the threat of a single German airship bombing raid caused amongst the general public, but the public had never before encountered such a threat. Indeed, the fear greatly exceeded the potential threat.
Also, the aircraft available for 'night fighting' were woefully inadequate for the job in every respect, and it seems a minor miracle that any German airships and bombers were shot down across England.
Beverley Shaw
This comment was written on: 2018-01-02 16:42:46I am currently researching airfields around Winterton in North Lincolnshire. Is there any ore details you could let me have about the airfield you described above please.
Dick Flute
This comment was written on: 2018-01-02 21:54:04Hi Beverley, Apart from adding a few details about the aircraft types likely to have been seen here, I am afraid that this is all I have. I shall keep your query posted and hopefully somebody can kindly add more advice. Best regards, Dick
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