8 RAF WATCH OFFICE

Poorly built, most have already been lost

My move to the East Midlands in 1992 placed me close to the western edge of the massive development of military airfields which took place in the early years of the Second World War. I was within a few minutes’ drive of

R.FLETCHER/CJLCOLLECTION Polebrook, King’s Cliffe and Deenethorpe airfield sites, as well as the very-much active RAF Wittering, then known as the ‘Home of the Harrier’.

The latter dates from the First World War period, and the other three were all wartime ‘expansion’ airfields built for the RAF but handed over almost immediately to the United States Army Air Force. B-17 Flying Fortress bombers flew from Polebrook and Deenethorpe and P-38 Lightnings from King’s Cliffe. Little remained at any of these sites, though King’s Cliffe and Deenethorpe still had their watch office (control tower) and Polebrook one of its hangars. Both watch offices are now gone, but not before I had managed to take a look round the one at Deenethorpe, which was splendidly and somewhat unusually adorned with ‘FLYING CONTROL’ across its front. I built my model soon afterwards.