Sample article taken from a recent Air Link.

 

RAF NORMANBY

Terry Hancock

When researching for ‘Bomber County’ and ‘Bomber County 2’ I was determined to include the ‘unglamorous’ side of the RAF, the non-flying stations without which the ‘glamorous’ flying units couldn’t have operated. The books thus contain details of the stores, SoTTs, radar stations, hospitals, marine craft units, regiment training areas, ranges, etc. When it came to the third edition, (just published), I also included decoy sites and thought I had covered everything, but one of the joys (and annoyances) of research is that you never do cover everything, as I should have known! ‘Bomber County's’ third edition was at the publishers for two years before, in December 2003, I received my manuscript from them with a letter asking me to update it by February ready for publication during spring 2004. Just by chance I was reading ‘Red Arrows, the Inside Story’ by S/L Tony Cunnane, the Arrow’s PRO for several years (and a book well worth reading). In Tony’s preamble to his time with the Arrows he gives a brief account of his previous RAF service - he joined as an electrician in the early 1950s, having failed aircrew selection, but around the mid 1950s, as a corporal awaiting another go for aircrew, found himself :

‘temporarily at Hemswell, then a very busy operational airfield and home for several squadrons of Lincoln bombers. For a few weeks I was detached from Hemswell to a small out-station at Normanby, just north of Scampton, where I was in sole charge of a dozen airmen’.

Horror of horrors, here was a station I hadn’t included and hadn’t known about, but there was still time if I could find out more. I wrote to Tony, care of his publishers, and he was kind enough to write straight back with the following info:

‘As far as I can recall  the unit was always referred to as Normanby Transmitters. The site almost certainly had an official title of No. xxx Signals Unit but, I am sorry, I have no idea what the number was. There were about a dozen airmen living there at any given time - all were either wireless or aerial technicians. I was sent there as a temporary replacement for the corporal in charge who had been sent off on a fitter’s course; it was really rather silly, but typical of the RAF, to put a young corporal who knew absolutely nothing about transmitters in charge of the high power transmitters that were the whole purpose of Normanby’s existence. I had never even seen a high-power transmitter before! My expertise was in receivers and teleprinters. Add to that the fact that I was trying ‘to improve myself’ by becoming aircrew and you can imagine that the other airmen treated me with a considerable degree of reserve. I cannot now remember how long I was there, several weeks only before I went off to Hornchurch for aircrew selection tests. We lived on the unit at Normanby and did all our own cooking with produce delivered every few days, with the mail and radio spare parts, from Hemswell. For entertainment we had a wireless, an occasional film show, or a visit to the then busy pub at Caenby Corner, or into Lincoln using an RAF vehicle that was at our disposal. In my time there I do not remember a visit by anyone more senior than me!

The transmitters were known as ‘Swabs’ - from SWB - short wave broadcaster. They were permanently switched on, ready to spring into life the instant the distant operator in Bomber Command HQ pressed his Morse key. All we had to do each day was to make sure they were transmitting properly. Occasionally there was some routine maintenance to be carried out and then we had to get permission to take the transmitter out of service. Throughout all the days of the V Force the signallers, and later AEOs (and I eventually became a V Force AEO), were required to send a position report to Bomber Command by Morse every hour, wherever in the world they were flying. The airborne signaller/AEO could chose from about a dozen frequencies whichever one he thought most suitable for the time of day, sunspot activity, location of the aircraft at the time, etc. Normanby Transmitters were ‘run’ by HQ No. 1 Group (then based at Bawtry Hall) but were actually part of the Bomber Command network. Every 30 minutes, every hour of every day, the Bomber Controller’s radio operator at High Wycombe would broadcast a message which included a codeword. It was mandatory for V bombers whilst airborne to log these broadcasts. In the evnt of real-life alerts or calls to war, the ‘go’ messages would have been transmitted simultaneously on every available transmitter. There were quite a few such transmitter sites scattered around the UK as well as overseas in the RAF‘s Near, Middle and Far East locations. The aim was to give good dispersal of facilities and world-wide coverage so that in the event of a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the Soviets at least some of the transmitters would have survived to provide a control facility for the British response. All the UK sites were connected to HQ Bomber Command and HQs 1 and 3 Groups.  The single-story  brick buildings were still there when I last passed by a few years ago but the aerials had been dismantled. They had been standard 1950s style high-frequency radio aerials slung between the high lattice supporting masts, with one aerial for each transmitter. The aerial farm occupied quite a large area of land adjacent to the buildings’.

Armed with this information from Tony I rushed across the road to tell Charles Parker of my ‘discovery’ only to find that Chas had a photo of it! Being organised he found it straight away and, as it was New Year’s Eve, we went straight off to compare the c1989 photo with the site today. It lies to the north of the minor road from the A15 to Normanby-by-Spital, (turn right about half-a-mile before Caenby Corner), and we found that it was still unmistakable, as the perimeter fence still surrounds the now-empty site, although all the buildings and aerials have gone. On the locked gate were a warning notice about HF transmitters, a rusty bell push and voice box which, Tony remembered when I told him about them, ‘was not just for visitors, we had to use it ourselves when we came back late at night from the pub or Lincoln.’

So I now knew where RAF Normanby was, what it looked like and what its use had been in the days of the V-force, but when Chas’ photo was taken around 1989, the site still had its buildings, there were two cars there, and apart from two lattice aerial masts, Chas remembered that there were three modern Christmas-Tree’ aerials at the rear of the site, and these can just be seen on the original photo. What was its use in 1989, long after the V-force had gone?  A letter to the Air Historical Branch elicited the reply that they ’had very limited information’ but they did send a copy of a hand-written record form from 1940, headed Normanby and stating ’W/T Transmitting Station will open 1.6.40. To be administered by Hemswell. To serve Hemswell, Scampton & Kirton-in-Lindsey. Parent station was Scampton.'  Added later was: ‘Site parented by RAF Scampton No 1 Group Strike Command.'  I now had some idea of its wartime use, which probably stayed roughly the same until the role Tony remembers from the early 1950s, but still no idea of what happened from 1982 to the early 1990s. Chas then had an idea in that S/L Rob Glover, a friend of the LAS, had been a civilian employee at Scampton after his retirement from the RAF, so I wrote to Rob from whom I received the following:

‘It was me who closed the site at Normanby when I was at Scampton as a Huntings employee. The Normanby transmitter site was part of the Scampton remit after RAF Hemswell closed in the ‘60s. As OC Supply Sqn in 1979/80 I had to visit Normanby to check the fuel tanks which held heavy duty diesel oil for the transmitter power generators. On my final visit in early 1996 to organise the removal of the remaining oil from the tanks I took the chance to look around the buildings. The huge generators were still in position and could have been restarted but I do not think that anyone was interested in removing them. Servicing the transmitters when they were in use was the task of the Scampton ground electrical engineers and I seem to remember that there was a SNCO and a small team of engineers on the station establishment specifically for Normanby.

The site was originally built as a DF transmitter under the control of RAF Hemswell but I have always known it as ‘the Scampton Outer Marker’. It was used I think in the Standard Beam Approach system initially and then as the ‘Outer Marker’ for the approach on runway 23 at Scampton. If you look at a map you will see that it is slightly offset from that heading and approx 5 miles on approach. We used it on the Canberras and it went on into use by Vulcans. I don’t think that it was used when Scampton became a training station. It was finally handed back to the land-owner in 1996. There you are, Terry, I have scratched through my distant memory store - I hope that it has been of help’

Actually, this threw a spanner in the works - It didn’t seem to me that Normanby looked like a Marker, which are usually a small brick hut carrying a Y shaped aerial, though they might have been more cumbersome in the early 50s - but Canberras would have been operating from Scampton and Hemswell at the time Tony says Normanby was the V-force transmitter, and surely the site wouldn’t have been used for both purposes, although its location is roughly where Rob says it is. A further communication from Rob, who checked with a former SNCO at Scampton, told me that Normanby closed in April 1985 and was handed back to the landowner in 1994. What about Chas’ 1989 photo? What else have I found out? Phil Becker remembers setting out from Scampton with supplies for Normanby in the 1962/3 severe winter, and having to turn back, so staff still lived there then - but from Rob’s comments about a Scampton team it seems that they shortly moved to Scampton, leaving the site unmanned? The site is now owned by Normanby Youth Club. If anyone reading this can help at all, do get in touch but in the meantime it looks as if a visit to the PRO is required - though will they have anymore than the AHB? We shall see.

Also to be investigated during a PRO visit is another Lincs site concerned with wireless/radio, RAF Mere, across the fields east of the A15 from Waddington. I did know about this and mention it in Bomber County 2 as 2 Direction Finding Station in WW2 but the remaining building looks post-war. I have seen a photo of the 80- odd personnel standing outside what I think to be East Mere House, a natural site for them to be billeted - the photo is captioned as Branston Y Station. I asked the AHB for info on Mere at the same time as I asked for Normanby and again they sent a copy of a hand-written record entry headed Mere Branston.

These are the entries :

118/47. Y Service Outstation to Cheadle, in Northern Sigs Area No 9 Group.

168/49. Transferred from Northern to Central Sigs Area wef 1.4.49.

420/51. No 3 DF Station renamed No 661 Signals Unit wef 1.11.51.

138/58.  MF/DF Site at Mere Branston reduced to inactive status and parented by Digby in No 90 Gp wef          31.10.57.

240/58. No661 Signals Unit (Mere Branston) disbanded here in No 90 Group wef 31.10.57. Wef same date admin control of this unit is transferred from Cheadle, No 90 Gp to Digby No 90 Gp.

54/62. No 399 Signals Unit disbanded wef 12.2.62. Wef same date Mere Branston reduced to inactive status for parenting by RAF Stn Digby in Sigs Command.

200/62. SD 155 Serial No54/62 is cancelled.

201/62.  RAF Mere Branston reduced to inactive status for parenting by RAF Digby wef 12.2.62.

90/67.  Location disposed of(sic)  RAF Digby SC relieved of parenting wef 11.5.67.

A lot of RAF speak there but it seems as if the site carried on operating until 1962, which explains the post-war building. It is also possible that DF stations doubled as Y Stations, the highly secret interception of enemy W/T and R/T  Traffic which so helped to win the war. It seems as if I was wrong to call Mere 2 DF as it was unlikely to have changed its title to 3 DF after the war. Finally, I was very recently reading the book  ’The Searchers’, the history of the Y service, by K.enneth Macksey and in this is stated that around 1919/20 the RAF opened its first wireless intelligence station at Waddington. Was this in fact Mere, as Waddington closed after WW1, or was it at the airfield, the only disused WW1 airfield to retain its buildings, leading to it reopening in 1926. Would an airfield have wanted large aerials on its site and did this mean a move to a new site - at Mere? All interesting stuff  which shows why research is so interesting!  If anyone can help with any other information on either of the two sites, I’d be pleased to hear from them.