Balderton Airfield
By Howard Heeley
Grid Ref: Sheet 130; SK816498; 3 miles SSE of Newark
Opened: Spring 1941
Squadrons: 25 OTU; 408 (Goose) Squadron RCAF; 1668 HCU; 12 (P) AFU; 437th& 439th TCG of 9th USAF; 227 Sqn; MU disposal site
Aircraft: Hampden; Lancaster; Halifax; Horsa glider; Blenheim; DC-3; Waco glider
Nationalities: Canadian; American; British
Things of note: Major USAF location for Allied operations Overlord (D-Day) and Market (Arnhem); Whittle prototype jets dispersed to airfield in March 1943.
Current status: Majority of airfield lost when the A1 was turned into a dual carriage way in the late 1960s; few visible structures; much of the former site is now underneath the BPB Formula Bantycock Opencast Site. A memorial to Balderton Airfield was dedicated in August 2014 and this is located in the grounds of the Lancaster Grange care home; Grid Ref: Sheet 121; SK822505.
(This information was originally published in the 2011 booklet “Aviation in Nottinghamshire”, which was produced by the Newark Air Museum thanks to a Local Improvement Scheme grant from the Nottinghamshire County Council. Photographs sourced from the Newark Air Museum Archive.)