Ingham

Validation date: 17 02 2014
Updated on: Never
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See on the interactive map:


53°20'28"N 000°33'18"W

Runway: NE/SW - 4800ft/1463m - grass
Runway: E / W - 3600ft/1097m - grass
Runway: N / S - 4800ft/1463m - grass

RAF Ingham (renamed to RAF Cammeringham on 24 November 1944) was a bomber airfield 205 kilometer north of London.
The site was considered during the 1930s expansion scheme, but it was not selected for development into a bomber base. However, when the increasing size of the bomber force led to capacity problems at RAF Hemswell, Ingham was developed as a satellite for RAF Hemswell from 1940.
Ingham was built as a standard 3-runway grass airfield with its main runway oriented SW to NE.  Uniquely, the control tower was situated between the runways at the centre of the airfield, together with a house that was initially used as an officers mess.
The concrete taxi track included 36 pan-type parkings and access to 3 hangars: two T2 and a single B1. In addition to the dispersed domestic sites, the airfield also occupied a number of buildings in Ingham village, such as the station HQ, the sick quarters and later the Polish Resettlement Centre. 


Layout of RAF Ingham as planned in 1940 (Airfieldinformationexchange)

Although the airfield was not liked much by those who were stationed there (the infrastructure was very limited and because of its dispersal), it had the major advantage of long, flat and easy approaches.
Despite the work put into building the airfield, Ingham was little used, aside from occasional dispersals of aircraft from RAF Hemswell. This changed in May 1942, when 300 Sqn and 301 Sqn arrived with their Wellington bombers. They operated from Ingham until January 1943, when 1 Group decided to concentrate the Polish bomber squadrons at RAF Hemswell. They were replaced by 199 Sqn with its Wellingtons from RAF Blyton some four days later. 199 Sqn was moved south to 3 Group, without its aircraft, by June 1943. At the same time, 300 Sqn returned to Ingham, this time accompanied by 305 Sqn, another Polish RAF squadron (301 Sqn had been disbanded when losses could no longer be made up for). Both had to leave Hemswell in preparation for the upgrade to concrete runways. The Poles continued operating with Wellingtons until September 1943, when 305 Sqn was reallocated to Second Tactical Air Force. 300 Sqn remained as the only operational squadron until 1 March 1944, when it was scheduled to re-equip with Lancaster bombers and move to Faldingworth. 
 
Throughout the Wellington-era Ingham remained a sod-surface airfield. It was unsuitable for the operation of four-engine heavy bombers due to the limitations of grass runways, and so for the rest of 1944 the station was home to bomber defence training units, Nos. 1481 and 1687 Flights, charged with target-towing and bomber interception practice using mainly Martinets and Hurricanes. 1481 Bombing and Gunnery Flight of the Gunnery School was resident at Ingham from Jun 1943 until 1945. 
RAF Ingham was subject to a mid-war name change. It was renamed RAF Cammeringham, the name change became official on 24 Nov 1944. It was done to avoid confusion with Ingham villages in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

RAF Ingham/Cameringham effectively ceased to operate in January 1945. Its 3 grass runways had deteriorated beyond suitability for flying of any type. The station was put in the hands of a holding party until closure shortly before the end of hostilities in 1945. After the war, on 25 Feb 1946, the flying field was released for immediate cultivation by farmers. 
The domestic sites were used a little longer. The Polish association with Cameringham continued through the presence of 16 (Polish) School of Technical Training until 7 Dec 1946 and 1 Polish Resettlement Unit until Feb 1948. These units included the Boys Training School, transfered from RAF Heliopolis in Egypt where the Polish Air Force Command had established an Aircraft Technical School for 200 Apprentices.
Since, most of the airfield had disappeared into farmlands. Some buildings and a single T2 hangar on the north side of the airfield remain, as does a 1150 meter section of the northern taxi track.


Wartime Quonset accommodation huts still standing at RAF Cammeringham in 2005 (wikipedia).


This image compares the 1940 RAF Ingham map shown above to a 2008 aerial photo of the airfield (Google Earth)

Heritage Centre
Since 2011, the RAF Ingham Heritage Group are redeveloping one of the original airfield buildings on the airfield site as a heritage centre. Their website can be found at rafingham.co.uk