RAF Donna Nook
Encyclopedia
RAF Donna Nook is a bombing range in East Lindsey
East Lindsey
East Lindsey is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The council is based in Manby near Louth, and other major settlements in the district include Alford, Spilsby, Mablethorpe, Skegness, Horncastle and Chapel St Leonards....

 in north-east Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is maintained by the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 and used by British and NATO war planes.

History

The area at Donna Nook
Donna Nook
Donna Nook is a bombing range on the coast of Lincolnshire, England, north of the village of North Somercotes. The area is salt marsh, and is used by a number of Royal Air Force bases in Lincolnshire for bombing practice. The site was also made available to commercial organisations such as BMARC...

 just north of North Somercotes
North Somercotes
North Somercotes is a large coastal village with a population of approximately 1800 people, located in the Marshes area of Lincolnshire, England.- General :...

 is also a nature reserve with a large seal habitat in the early winter maintained by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the whole ceremonial county of Lincolnshire England...

. It is the only National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...

 in the UK on MOD
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 land, and was opened on July 18 2002 by Air Commodore
Air Commodore
Air commodore is an air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...

 Nigel Williams. There was once a minor airfield there which closed, and was home to 206 Squadron
No. 206 Squadron RAF
No. 206 Squadron was a Royal Air Force unit employed, until 2005, in the maritime patrol role with the Nimrod MR.2 at RAF Kinloss, Moray. It was announced in December 2004 that 206 Squadron would disband on 1 April 2005, with half of its crews being redistributed to Nos. 120 and 201 Squadrons, also...

 from August 1941 - July 1942. RAF North Coates, a former airfield still in physical existence, was three miles to the north-west along the coast.

However, during the Second World War, RAF Donna Nook referred to a Chain Home Extremely Low (CHEL) radar station, sited a short distance away from the current establishment. This utilized a 10-cm radar set to track both low-flying intruders and German E-boats cruising offshore, and was operational in this role from 1943-1945. From evidence in his authorized biography (Odyssey: The Authorized Biography of Arthur C. Clarke; Neil McAleer, Gollancz, 1992) it appears that it was to RAF Donna Nook that the young Sir Arthur C. Clarke was posted in 1943, shortly after an interview with Wing Commander (later Sir) Edward Jefferson,RAF, who was subsequently Director of Telecommunications for the General Post Office.

External links


Video clips

  • Weapons burst by an A-10 Thunderbolt II
    A-10 Thunderbolt II
    The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat, twin-engine, straight-wing jet aircraft developed by Fairchild-Republic in the early 1970s. The A-10 was designed for a United States Air Force requirement to provide close air support for ground forces by attacking tanks,...

  • Flyby on range by a BAE Hawk
    BAE Hawk
    The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, advanced jet trainer aircraft. It first flew in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk. The Hawk is used by the Royal Air Force, and other air forces, as either a trainer or a low-cost combat aircraft...

    , Panavia Tornado
    Panavia Tornado
    The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...

     and Eurofighter Typhoon
    Eurofighter Typhoon
    The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies: EADS, Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems; working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH, which was formed in 1986...

  • Gunfire on the range by a SEPECAT Jaguar
    SEPECAT Jaguar
    The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French jet ground attack aircraft, originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Armée de l'Air in the close air support and nuclear strike role, and still in service with several export customers, notably the Indian Air Force and the Royal Air Force...

  • Bomb practice by an A-10 Thunderbolt II

See also

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