Sold in support of the Avro Lancaster NX611 "Just Jane" return to airworthiness project, this major new exploration of RAF Station East Kirkby's wartime sorties, USAF Cold War operations and the growth of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre:  AVAILABLE HERE

RAF East Kirkby had a relatively short life as an operational airfield, but in those few years many different units, and many different nationalities briefly called it home.

After the last military aircraft left, the area that had been RAF East Kirkby fell silent and slowly most of the land returned to agricultural use. The resourceful farmers found alternative uses for the hastily erected buildings and the readily available hardcore and it could have been not that before long there would be no trace left of the airfield and the memories of all those heroic deeds could have been lost.

Fortunately, some thirty five years ago, two brothers decided that this must not happen. In memory of their much-loved brother Christopher lost in action with Bomber Command in 1944, Fred and Harold Panton opened a fledgling museum around the old Watch Tower. As the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre (LAHC), it has grown and flourished into the world-renowned, award-winning facility it is today, and, despite all the temptations of commercialism it has remained true to the original aim of the founders – to be a living memorial to Christopher Panton and all those who served in Bomber Command.

As a result of many hours of research into the Operational Records’, Martin has managed to put together this wonderful account of life at “EK”, with not only all the necessary fascinating facts and figures but also some of the amazing human stories that service in wartime and peacetime inevitably create. To bring this story completely up to date, Martin also describes how the museum initially began and many of the significant milestones on the way to where we are today.

To quote the unofficial motto of LAHC: “If one person goes away with a better knowledge of Bomber Command, their losses and what they gave for our country, we are one step closer to repaying our tremendous debt to them”.

472 pages / English / Illustrated throughout in black & white / Dimensions 21.01 x 2.72 x 29.69 cm (A4) / ISBN-13 978-1911255918