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LANGAR AIRFIELD Little happened in the area between Langar and Harby before the second world war. There seems to have been a church somewhere, dedicated to Saint Ethelburga, and there were activities towards Bingham to do with Wiverton Hall in the Civil War. Then in 1942 George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. were at work constructing an airfield. From its beginning, until 1968, 5 years after it closed as an airfield, the firm of AV Roe had workshops there. At first they were set up to test and repair the Lancaster bombers that came with the Royal Air Force 207 Squadron. This squadron moved to Spilsby in October 1943. In its place came the United States of America Air Force 435 Troup Carrier Group with C - 47 planes and later 441 TCG which supplied paratroops in the Netherlands from July to September 1944. The Royal Air Force came back in October 1944 with its 1669 Heavy Conversion Unit until March 1945. The airfield then closed in 1946 but opened again in 1951 to serve the only Royal Canadian Air Force base in the UK, their primary base in Europe. The Canadians stayed until 1963. Harby windmill had its top storey removed to make it less of a danger to planes taking off with their heavy cargo of bombs. The sails had been previously wrecked in the wind connected with poor maintenance.
The airfield was closely connected with Harby,
at the extreme south the runways extend into Harby Parish. People from
the village were involved in building it though much of the labour force
came from southern Ireland. The airfield supplied employed for Harby
people among the airforce duties and at A V Roes. Very few photographs
survive, indeed few were taken as film was scarce during the war and
photography on military sites was forbidden.
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